The Patriots of the golden era believed that Tom Brady played well when he was angry. Is it so? Well, it’s no secret that Brady allowed Bill Belichick to cuss him out to become a better player. So, when other people ask Tom Brady to “shut the f up,” he doesn’t take kindly to them. Former Patriots OC and quarterbacks coach Bill O’Brien has experienced it first-hand.

It is the tale of the 2011 season when the New England Patriots went to play the Washington Redskins. There was a moment of frustration in the game when Bill O’Brien and Tom Brady had an altercation that nearly led to a fistfight. The former Pats OC took to Julian Edelman’s podcast and revealed the true story of using “Jedi Mind Tricks” to hype Brady up.

Edelman, Brady’s former teammate, iterated that the QB played better when he was “p—sed off.” To that end, Edelman recalled the times when O’Brien and Brady would “nearly fistfight on the sidelines.” Bill O’Brien even set the record straight by saying that Deion Branch sat out of that game due to an injury and Tiquan Underwood was subbed in instead, which caused some offensive problems for the Pats.

“He [Underwood] didn’t run a in-cut, he kind of faded. The corner for the Redskins undercut it. Tom kind of looped it in there. We come over to the sideline and Tom’s ripping Tiquan and I can remember Wes [Walker] like, ‘Man, let’s move on, like,’” Bill O’Brien said as Edelman pointed out that Pats were frustrated because they weren’t moving the pigskin well enough.

O’Brien continued by saying, “So, then it just became, ‘Hey Tom! You need to shut the f up. We got to move on now because Grossman’s driving the b-ll, we’re going to possibly go to overtime.” But in return, it was Brady who asked the former OC to “shut the f up.” Well, there you have it. The game didn’t go to OT and the Patriots still ended up winning 34-27.

For one, Edelman knew that it was the “brilliance of Billy O,” in that the coach used his “Jedi Mind Tricks” aka reverse psychology to “p—s” Tom Brady off. So, let’s take a brief look at that game and what the Patriots 2011 season was like.

The recap of Tom Brady’s 2011 career with the New England Patriots

To start off, the Patriots were in their prime. In fact, they were the only ones to win their division championship back-to-back. The New England Patriots finished their season 13-3 and eventually went to the Super Bowl after beating the Baltimore Ravens in the 2011 AFC Championship game.

But coming back to the Redskins game, Brady completed 22 of his 37 passes and threw for 357 yards along with three touchdowns. Two of those TDs were between Brady and Gronkowski and one of them was scored by Wes Walker late in the third quarter as Stephen Gostkowski sealed the game with an extra point.

Tom Brady was up against Eli Manning in the Super Bowl XLVI and the Patriots lost 21-17. Manning bested Brady in all regards and threw for 296 yards and a touchdown. Brady on the other hand threw for 276 yards, 2 TDs, and an interception. Sadly, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots are teams that don’t get enough highlights these days.