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Tedy Bruschi On Felger & Mazz: 'My Goal Was To Be On The Best Team Ever'

Tedy Bruschi doesn't always enjoy getting singled out with "individual recognition," but he won't be able to avoid it on Monday, when he gets inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame.

The linebacker who spent his entire 13-year career with the Patriots talked with Michael Fegler and former teammate Jermaine Wiggins before being inducted and discussed the honor.

As for what he recalls as the top moment or accomplishment of his career, beating the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI stands alone.

"There's the gratification you feel when you bring an organization its first championship," Bruschi said. "Because until you do, people don't believe it. People don't believe that it's going to happen. Probably even the players, in their minds, are like, 'Is it possible?' Losing the Super Bowl to the Chicago Bears, being perennial losers, not being able to do it … To be able to break through that and be on the team that won the first was really special to me.

Bruschi became the face of the defense during the dynasty years, but he said an honor like a hall of fame induction was never on his list of goals.

"It's a goal I never had. If your goal playing football is to make any type of hall of fame, I think it's twisted for you mentally," Bruschi said. "I hear players say, 'My goal was to be the best ever, to be the best linebacker ever, to be the best quarterback ever.' I think that's the wrong way to state it.

"My goal was to be on the best team ever, to be on a world championship team. I think a lot of us were on the same page with that. That's what made it simplified for a lot of us. When you're not having your goals that were so extreme and high and you're breaking it down to its simplest form of the step that you have to take to succeed on a particular play, and then all of the pressure is off and you just try to do one in a row, two in a row, three in a row. Then all of a sudden, it happens that you're playing in a championship game or a Super Bowl."

Bruschi also reflected on the favorite play of his career, some of his great teammates and coaches, the story of how the Patriots decided to be introduced as a team in Super Bowl XXXVI, his conversion to becoming a media member, and more.

Tedy Bruschi

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