OPRAH: What did Deflategate,
as the press called it,
teach you about yourself?
TOM: Well, I think it taught me --
it taught me a lot of things.
You know, it taught me about, you know,
the people that I could really count on.
OPRAH: Mm-hmm.
TOM: You know, the people that really
supported me. And it taught me a lot about life.
You know, sometimes you do the best you can do
and it doesn't work out.
And there were a lot of frustrations, you know,
and I tried to fight as hard as I could for
what I believed in.
OPRAH: What made you finally say I'm gonna
let it go?
TOM: Just -- just too much anxiety.
You know? Too much -- I realized,
I couldn't win. And it was divided attention.
And I was tired of that. Tired of waking up
and having a call with someone from the
players association and I just said,
you know what? I'm gonna use this as an
opportunity to -- I had the month of
September off for the first time in,
like, that would have been 16 -- 21 years.
And I was, like, I'm gonna take advantage
of this. And the first thing we did, we
-- my wife and I and our kids we flew out
to see my parents. And my mom was just
starting treatment for cancer.
OPRAH: Cancer.
TOM: And I said, we're going golfing.
We're gonna go to pebble beach.
And we went there. And I -- we never went
on a honeymoon, my wife and I,
so we said we're gonna go to Italy,
you know? In September. So I said, man,
that was the best month off I think I've
ever had.
OPRAH: (Laughter.)
TOM: And I really -- in some ways it was
-- it was a great experience. I think you
look back on those experiences when they
-- that was a really tough experience in
my life.
OPRAH: Would you do things differently?
Would you handle it differently?
TOM: No. OPRAH: No? TOM: No.