David Andrews is one of only four current New England Patriots players to have suited up alongside legendary quarterback Tom Brady.
But out of that exclusive group, Andrews was the only one to share an offensive huddle with Brady.
Andrews, who is entering his ninth NFL season, is now a well-respected Patriots veteran, but when the offensive lineman entered the league as an undrafted rookie in 2015, he was just trying to get on the same page as Brady.
That wasn’t always an easy task given Brady’s high demand for excellence. And when Andrews wasn’t in sync with Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion let the player who snapped him the ball hear it.
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“He was hard on me. He was very hard,” Andrews told reporters Monday as the Patriots will induct Brady into the team Hall of Fame with a one-of-a-kind ceremony Wednesday. “He moved a lot different than the installs did. But that was good. I enjoyed that. He pushed. He wanted to see how much I would take and if I would break or keep going. It challenged me to learn a lot because if we were on install two, he was on install 100.”
Andrews held his own as he started 11 games during his rookie season. While Andrews became a mainstay on the offensive line, that wasn’t enough to shield him from being chewed out by Brady.
“I remember a sub-blitz period he was out there making calls I have never heard of in my life and getting mad at me,” Andrews said. “And then Seabass (Sebastian Vollmer) is yelling at me. But it was good because it challenged me and it pushed me and it made me learn. I didn’t want to let him down.”
Andrews, who said he was excited for the Brady festivities and a chance to be around his former teammates, marveled not only at Brady’s on-field ability, but also his leadership.
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“The thing about Tom is obviously he’s the greatest player to ever play this game, but he was a great teammate,” Andrews said. “He’s done a lot of things I wish I could do in my career about knowing people’s names and things like that. That was super impressive to me.”
