Tom Brady, ESPN's 'Man in the Arena' documentary: Episode 1 relives 'Tuck Rule Game'

This story contains light spoilers from the first episode of "Man In The Arena."

The spotlight has been trained on Tom Brady for so long, surely a documentary about him could feel like overkill. Heck, there’s already been a documentary about him – “Tom vs. Time” – that was filmed during the 2017 season as an extensive look at his home life and released the next year. 

Rather than a straight biography – references to his childhood in California and college years at Michigan notwithstanding – the “Man in the Arena” is Brady’s firsthand account of all 10 of his runs to the Super Bowl and their larger impact on his life. 

While the formula is the same, “Man in the Arena” is a notch lower on the hagiography scale compared to “The Last Dance,” the Michael Jordan-centric 10-part documentary that aired on ESPN last spring. It was during that series the first trailer for “Man In The Arena” dropped, and now it’s here (Episode 1, "In The Arena," available to ESPN+ subscribers today, with a new episode released each Tuesday). 

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“It’s really how these seasons and how the stories of these seasons impacted my life as its evolved and changed... let’s say from being a 22-year-old to being a 44-year-old man that’s grown up in front of the spotlight,” said Brady, who isn’t afraid to slip an f-bomb or three in his present day interviews. 

Nine episodes will be released this fall, with the 10th – focusing on his seventh Super Bowl and first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – coming out at a later date

“It’s a time capsule of 20 years of memories,” Brady said last week. He was chatting with series director and media business partner, Gotham Chopra, who also directed “Tom vs Time" prior to a virtual screening of the first episode of “Man in the Arena." Religion of Sports, the sports media company founded by Chopra, Brady and Michael Strahan, co-produced the documentary. 

"The Man in the Arena" is a famous passage from a speech former President Theodore Roosevelt gave called "Citizenship in a Republic."

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better," Roosevelt said in 1910 at the University of Paris. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena." 

In this “Arena,” featured guests help tell the story of that particular season, along with Brady. In Episode 1, titled "In the Arena" it’s linebacker Willie McGinest and quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Brady replaced Bledsoe, newly inked to a $103 million contract that offseason, at quarterback after Bledsoe suffered an injury that sidelined him for six weeks.

“I think they’re going to see a lot of humanity in it,” Brady said last week. 

That much held up for the Brady-Bledsoe dynamic, which played out 20 years ago, and may be the most revealing part of the premiere episode. (Brady also bizarrely and temporarily speaks in the third person for this part of the episode.) Bledsoe is the second voice heard (after Brady's) and is the first present-day interview to appear on screen. With coach Bill Belichick (absent from the documentary thus far) going with Brady under center down the stretch, Bledsoe went from star to backup. 

"If Tommy was an asshole, it would have been really, really hard to do that," Bledsoe says. "But he’s not." 

The footage from Brady’s career reminds fans of past Patriots from the first dynasty such as Troy Brown, Lawyer Milloy, Matt Light and Ty Law. Not included are any interviews with family members or coaches. Among the comedic elements is Brady confessing that he consistently perused mock draft websites prior to the Patriots taking him in the sixth round in 2000.

The AFC Divisional Round contest following the 2001 regular season, otherwise known as the "Tuck Rule Game,"plays a central role in the episode. Brady explains his initial thoughts before a controversial, overturned fumble allowed the Patriots to retain the possession, tie and then ultimately defeat the Oakland Raiders. 

Bledsoe relieved an injured Brady against the Pittsburgh Steelers to help send New England to the Super Bowl -- where Belichick again went with Brady over Bledsoe.

But Brady said he felt a calmness he did not feel two weeks prior in Pittsburgh, even though he joked he wasn't old enough to rent a car. He recites the first playcall for the Patriots that night and admits “we didn’t do a ton on offense other than that we didn’t lose the game.” 

Toward the end of the episode, Bledsoe recalls skiing in Montana the day after the Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams and crying while riding a ski lift alone. He put on a brave face, though, and Brady says the lesson of unselfishness became embedded in him thanks to Bledsoe. 

“It’s been incredible for me to love what I’m doing, to chase something for so long,” Brady says to close the episode. “And I’m still (expletive) doing it.”

Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.