Tom Brady vs. Father Time

Former Michigan quarterback Jason Kapsner is 43, just like his former teammate, Tom Brady.

But unlike Brady, who’s playing his 21st season in the NFL, Kapsner actually feels 43, especially after undergoing knee replacement surgery three weeks ago.

So what drives Brady to not act his age?

“It’s his competitiveness and I think his love for the game and his love to compete,” said Kapsner, who played for the Wolverines from 1996 to 2000 and backed up Brady in 1998 and 1999. “There’s nothing really left to prove. … How many people would still put their body through this?”

Not many. Ever. In NFL history.

Brady continues to play at an elite level, warding off age and attrition to the best of his ability as the NFL’s oldest rostered player. The six-time Super Bowl champion, now in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is fourth in the NFL with 14 touchdown passes while sporting a 97.8 passer rating and a 64.1 completion percentage. Those figures are in line with his career marks of 97.0 and 63.9.

The Raiders welcome the Buccaneers to Allegiant Stadium on Sunday for a matinee tilt at 1:05 p.m.

“You don’t know at what age he is,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. “He’s not showing any signs of age at all. … He’s adapted every year to different personnel. Different coordinators. He’s the best, and it’s a great thrill for us to have a chance to compete against him.”

Brady’s diet and fitness regimens are the stuff of legend at this point and will surely be lauded in NFL lore when he retires. If he retires.

They’re powered by an unrelenting competitive drive reserved for the best of the best. It’s not exactly a secret. He’s beating time because he puts in the time.

“Just his pure desire to win and to want to play forever…it’s impressive,” said retired running back Shane Vereen, who played seven NFL seasons, including four with Brady from 2011 to 2014. “But to still have that chip on your shoulder and to still be motivated to get even better, I think that’s the most impressive thing about it all.”

The worker

Before Brady’s TB12 diet penetrated the mainstream, there were the Subway sandwiches — sans the bread. Even in college, carbohydrates were deemed unnecessary by the eventual greatest of all time.

Kapsner said Brady was willing to experiment with his diet at Michigan, flashing an uncanny sense of discipline for a college kid surrounded by the allure of pizza and milkshakes.

The components of his diet have certainly evolved. He fancies organic fruits, vegetables and nuts these days, along with lean meats and fresh seafood.

But his mentality was already refined. Anything for an edge.

“I think he knew he had limitations athletically,” Kapsner said, “but it was ‘I’ll outwork you. I’ll outwork whoever it is that I need to outwork.’”

Brady searched for every edge he could possibly find at Michigan, where he was an unheralded recruit tasked with competing against blue-chippers at the premier program in college football.

He earned the right to back up Brian Griese, who set school records in 1997 and went on to play 11 seasons in the NFL.

Then he was forced to split time with Drew Henson, a top quarterback recruit talented enough to play in the NFL and MLB.

But Henson was not focused enough to overtake Brady, who turned one repetition in practice into two. And two into four. And so on and so forth, until he won over the team with his play and leadership.

“The coaches didn’t really want to do a whole lot with him,” Kapsner recalled. “But he would make that one rep perfect, and you would almost see the coaches be like ‘Crap, now I’ve got to give him two reps.’ … He was slow and awkward, but he always got the job done.”

Mike DeBord, Brady’s offensive coordinator at Michigan, fashions himself as an “early morning guy.” But even he wouldn’t beat Brady to the team’s indoor practice facility, where he’d often find the quarterback throwing well before anybody else was in the building.

DeBord certainly didn’t expect Brady to play on six Super Bowl-winning teams, earn four Super Bowl MVPs and play 21 seasons.

Who did?

But in hindsight, he says, it’s not a complete surprise.

“He had just the drive and determination as great as any player I’ve been around in my life,” said DeBord, who began coaching in 1982 and returned to Michigan this year as an offensive analyst under coach Jim Harbaugh. “He was determined to succeed.”

The competitor

Vereen can admit it. He was a little starstruck in 2011 when he met Brady for the first time before his rookie season. Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians insinuated on a conference call last week that some of Tampa Bay’s younger players were similarly impressed upon meeting the living legend.

But former NFL coach Eric Mangini had the opposite experience.

He was on New England’s coaching staff when Brady was a rookie in 2000 and met the man before the rings, trophies and records.

“Nothing at that point said ‘This guy is going to win six Super Bowls and be arguably the greatest player of all time,’” said Mangini, an assistant in New England from 2000 to 2005 and later head coach of the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. “But what he did have was incredible traits. He had a great work ethic, a natural intelligence. He was willing to hold himself accountable, hold other people accountable.

“To me what distinguishes Tom from other athletes I’ve been around is no matter how famous he gets, no matter how much success he has, no matter how much money he has, there’s a humbleness to the way that he approaches things. … He recognizes that in order for him to stay at the level he wants to be at, he’s got to constantly be pushing. There’s no complacency.”

Vereen said Brady always sought perfection, from himself and his teammates, regardless of the setting. Brady hosted Vereen and a handful of others for a few informal practices ahead of 2011 campaign, which was threatened by a lockout after the collective bargaining agreement expired.

No coaches. So what?

Perfection. Perfection. Perfection.

“I picked up on that extremely fast,” said Vereen, who caught 11 passes from Brady during a 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. “That’s just who he was as a person and teammate.”

Longtime Michigan sports information director David Ablauf said Brady was “mentally tougher than anybody else.”

“He has the will and desire like nobody else,” Ablauf said. “He wants to beat everybody at everything.”

Including Father Time.

Brady is second all-time in passing yards (76,112), and touchdowns (555) in the NFL and has a stronghold on just about every playoff passing record imaginable. Yet he works, prepares and competes like he’s still a backup at Michigan.

“I got to see the most mentally tough athlete in history develop,” Kapsner said. “He’s the ultimate example on how you can succeed by focusing on what you can control. … And to this day, all the distractions and everything, that guy, I think he looks up and is focused on ‘What can I do today?’”

The next today comes Sunday against the Raiders.

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.