In My Sporting Hero, a new podcast series from Nutmeg, footballers talk about the athletes who inspire them. Sometimes those sportsmen and women are also footballers. Sometimes not. You can listen to the audio on this post, on the podcast app of your choice (just search for ‘My Sporting Hero’) or enjoy the written version below.
Our next guest is Coll Donaldson.
Coll currently captains Falkirk as they strive to become a top-flight outfit again. Starting out as a promising youth prospect at Livingston, Col earned a move to Queens Park Rangers, before spells as a dependable centre-half at Dundee United, Inverness and Ross County.
Coll’s sporting hero is Tom Brady, one of the NFL’s greatest-ever quarterbacks, who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, and then defied the doubters by winning another at Tampa at the tender age of 43.
When I was aged 11, my family went to Colorado on a ski trip. It was right at the start of the 2007 NFL playoffs.
My dad would watch the Super Bowl, but we didn’t really know much about American Football. But when we were over there, the play-offs were on the television at night and there was a real buzz about them.
My ski instructor was from Boston and he was a massive New England Patriots fan, he just wouldn’t stop talking about Tom Brady. This was the year that the Patriots were the best team ever. Their wide receiver was Randy Moss, who was an all-time great. They made it all the way to the Super Bowl but were beaten by the New York Giants, who had Eli Manning.
I actually listened to the game on the radio in my bedroom, after we got home, so my first real memory of Tom Brady was heartbreak. I don’t know if that put me off and I sort of lost the love for it, but I’ve managed to rediscover that in the past few years.
Brady’s NFL career didn’t start via the usual route. He wasn’t a first-round pick, he didn’t have had a great college career. He wasn’t built up as a No.1 prospect.
But halfway through the season, Drew Bledsoe, the New England quarterback, was injured during a game, and then Brady came on. Bledsoe was a fan-favourite, so it was simply expected that once he got fit again, he would be back in, but Brady did so well that he was never dropped. That’s the mentality of an elite sportsman, that once you get your opportunity, you grab it with both hands.
He led the 2001 Super Bowl game-winning drive, the type of fourth-quarter drive that he became famous for throughout his career. I think he broke every NFL fan’s heart at some point. There’s no bigger stage than the Super Bowl, and even people who aren’t interested in the NFL stay up and watch it. That was in his first season, and it probably gave him massive confidence in his abilities, so from there he just kicked on.
Then there was the 2015 Super Bowl comeback against the Atlanta Falcons, who were a really good team. Their main stars were Julio Jones, the wide receiver, and the quarterback, Matt Ryan. New England were 28-3 down at halftime, and you don’t win from there, it’s never been done before. But the Patriots were led by the great Tom Brady, and they mounted a comeback that in footballing terms was probably similar to Liverpool’s Miracle of Istanbul. Danny Amendola, the wide receiver, caught a touchdown pass in the last few seconds and then they needed a two-point conversion. Then the Patriots won it in overtime. They would go on to win a third Super Bowl in five years, so that cemented Brady’s second dynasty. He was in his late thirties by then, and there had been a big gap in the middle of his career without Super Bowl wins, so for him to achieve that was extraordinary.
Since then, I’ve been obsessed with NFL, and my girlfriend hates it because Sunday nights are just a complete write-off. I tell her not to arrange anything on a Sunday after six o’clock because I’m watching it, I love it, I think it’s amazing.
After Brady left New England, I continued to follow his career, and I stopped following the Patriots. It’s probably difficult to understand for football fans, because in Scotland, you support your team even though players come and go, but I was only interested in Brady. Rob ‘Gronk’ Gronkowski went with him to Tampa Bay, and he had also been a huge part of the Patriots’ success.
Thus began another brilliant story, because everyone wrote Brady off, even though at that point he had won six Super Bowls. New England gave up on him and let him walk as a free agent. In his first year with Tampa, he won the Super Bowl. It was the first time Tampa had won the Super Bowl since 2003, and it was during Covid, which had badly affected the sport. They weren’t the number-one seed in their division but they beat New Orleans, and then they went to Green Bay and beat the Packers, who had Aaron Rodgers who was another all-time great quarterback. The Super Bowl was actually held in Tampa, so it was a home Super Bowl, where they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs who had the great quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who was regarded as the closest type of player to Brady.
I’ve never actually been to an NFL game because I’m still playing professional football, and the seasons clash. There was a game in London last year, where the Bills were playing the Jaguars, but I couldn’t get the time off to go down. However, when I finish my football career, I’ll definitely go to an NFL match. I’ll probably go to Dallas, because now that Brady’s retired, I’ve turned into a glory-hunting Cowboys fan! I’m a Jambo, and I don’t get to see Hearts win much, so I thought if I’m going to pick a team, I’d choose the Cowboys. However, they seem to get to the playoffs and then collapse every year, so it’s actually just been even more heartache!
Brady has bought a stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, and there was actually talk of him coming out of retirement to play for them, but there’s a rule that you can’t be an owner and a player, so that put paid to that.
And then he bought his stake in Birmingham City, who are splashing the cash this year. Also, he’s signed a huge media contract, so he’s going to be an analyst for Fox this year, and it’s going to be amazing to listen to him.
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