3x Patriots Super Bowl champ recalls Tom Brady napping in locker room before Super Bowl XXXVI in "The Verdict" documentary

Tom Brady is widely considered the greatest quarterback of all time, six of his seven Super Bowl titles came with the New England Patriots, the first coming at XXXVI against the then-St. Louis Rams at the end of the 2001 season.

At the time, he was a young, fresh-faced sophomore who was leading a rather anonymous team to just the franchise's third Super Bowl appearance. Their opponents had the most potent offense in the league, dubbed "The Greatest Show on Turf," with an underrated defense.

The Patriots were 18-point underdogs, but that did not deter Brady. He kept the game close, eventually sealing it by driving into field goal range with one and a half minutes left, before Adam Vinatieri clinched it at the buzzer.

Former linebacker Ted Johnson, a three-time Super Bowl winner with the Patriots, had a very interesting sight of the quarterback in the lead-up to the game. Jonshon saw Brady lying on the locker room floor, towel over his face, napping. In the series premiere of the VICE TV Documentary "Brady vs. Belichick: The Verdict," he said (23:00 onwards):

"That, oddly, put me at ease. He had it under control. And when you are the quarterback and you project that kind of confidence and that poise, it permeates throughout the entire locker room."

(Image source - The case for Tom Brady (VICE TV)

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Former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison recalls funny Tom Brady moment during practice

Playing with Tom Brady would initially entail connotations of "hypercompetitiveness," "win at all costs", and "second place is for losers." But for Rodney Harrison, who was a key component of the first half of the Patriots' dynasty, he also had a sense of humor that would occasionally show itself on the field.

In the same episode, the safety recalls to then-NY Daily News writer Gary Myers an incident that happened during a Super Bowl midweek practice:

"Tom threw an interception while we were practicing. I took it to the house, I was high-stepping like Deion [Sanders]."

At that point, Brady went over to some footballs and started hurling them at him while shouting expletives - a display of his "intensity":

"It was really the highlight of my Super Bowl."

Harrison would play in three Super Bowls as a Patriot, winning XXXVIII and XXXIX but losing XLII.