With Tom Brady turning 40 on Thursday, ESPN's Mike Reiss published a piece detailing several must-read behind-the-scenes stories about the Patriots quarterback.
Perhaps the best story of them all came from Brady's backup on the Patriots from 2009-11, Brian Hoyer. Hoyer, now with the 49ers, shared an awesome story about Brady's beer-chugging abilities.
"We played up at Buffalo and we couldn't fly back into Boston because the weather was so bad, so we had to stay the night in Rochester. We drove there, and we all decided we'd go out to dinner together. Tom being who he was, he usually couldn't come to a team event like that. We might be at Capital Grille and he is sneaking in the back door and then people realize he's there and he has to leave. But this was impromptu at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Rochester. The whole team is there. And it turns into a beer-chugging contest. You have linemen, Julian Edelman, they all think they are going to win. Then someone says, 'I heard Tom is really great at chugging a beer.' We don't usually get to experience him like this, but we finally coax him into doing it. He does it, and let me tell you, you couldn't have poured out the beer faster into a glass. It was unbelievable. And he slams the mug on the table and puts both fists in the air. He walks away with a look on his face that said, 'You really thought you were going to beat me on this?' The place went nuts."
Brady's beer-chugging expertise has been raved about in the past by former Patriots offensive lineman Ross Tucker, who called Brady the best beer chugger he has ever seen.
Reiss' collection of anecdotes also includes a story ex-Patriots cornerback Ty Law told about Brady after he took Drew Bledsoe's starting job.
"When he finally got the job and was named the starter, our thought as a defense was, 'Just don't mess it up.' I remember us hanging out and he said something to me that, to this day, still resonates with me. We had a good quarterback in Drew Bledsoe, and here's Tom saying, 'He isn't getting this f---ing job back.'
Sixteen years and five Super Bowl victories later, here we are.