Joe Brady didn’t try to dress it up. After Buffalo’s 36-31 win over Houston, the Bills’ head coach made it clear that game day brings out a side of him he’d rather not dwell on.
At the end of his postgame press conference Sunday, Brady was asked about how he felt on the sideline during Buffalo’s final offensive drive. His answer stood out: he said he didn’t like who he was on game day.
That comment came back around Monday, when Brady met with reporters before practice and was asked to explain it. He started bluntly enough.
“I get heated,” Brady said. “There's sometimes I try my best not to be emotional, I don't make emotional decisions, but I do get upset when certain things are…”
He trailed off there, struggling to finish the thought. Brady then acknowledged that games can bring moments he’d like to have back.
"Things happen on headsets; things happen during games that I'm not always necessarily proud of,” Brady said. “But, yeah, I'll leave it at that."
He said he wasn’t totally sure how to answer the question about what he dislikes about himself on game days, but he drew a clear line between that and his week-to-week demeanor. Brady said he’s “way more calm” during the week than he is once the game starts.
That edge has helped define him early in his run as Buffalo’s head coach. The soon-to-be 37-year-old has become one of the most visibly energetic sideline presences in the NFL. But Brady’s point was less about the emotion itself than what happens after it.
He believes he can reset.
“I think I do a good job of being able to then move on,” Brady said.
Now the focus shifts fast. Buffalo is heading into its first short week of the season after opening with the win over Houston, and the next test comes Thursday night against the Detroit Lions in the Bills’ home opener. There isn’t much room for reflection, and Brady and his staff won’t have long to sit with anything from Week 1.
The task now is simple to say and harder to do: do it again, and do it on short rest.
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