Ben Affleck says he once played a game of catch with NFL legend Tom Brady and described the experience as “one of the most memorable days of my life.” The actor says the similarities between himself and Brady mostly begin and end with both of them having been in New England.
“I wish I had more in common with Tom Brady,” Affleck recently told Bill Simmons on his podcast, Friday. “I played catch with the man once and realized how very little we had in common. He was throwing the ball to me and I was praying to God, not just because I wanted to impress the guy — which I very much did — but because I thought I would really get hurt because it shows up right in front of your face.”
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
The Last Duel star explained that he didn’t expect to have to work as hard as he did. Affleck joked that he had to “work harder than I have in the last 25 years.”
Affleck also says the workout showed him firsthand why Brady is considered the greatest quarterback of all time.
He explained: “He doesn’t have that part of the brain where he gets nervous…He doesn’t get tight. And by getting tight ruins him. That’s why guys drop the ball on the clutch play….There are famous instances, plays they make 10,000 times… Even when we were playing catch, we weren’t just playing catch. He would say, ‘Alright, it’s the Super Bowl. We’re on the 16-yard line, it’s fourth down. We have six seconds. We win this; it’s everything. We miss; it’s over.’ Even just listening to him, I thought we were in the Super Bowl and thought, ‘I’ll do anything to catch this ball.’…The ball was a little past me and I lept out and dove. I think I was doing my ‘Batman’ at the time and was like, ‘Nevermind my career, nevermind my aging body.”’
[Via]