Getty Tom Brady congratulates Chris Godwin on a touchdown during the 2020 season.
Tom Brady isn’t the only Tampa Bay Buccaneers player to make a famous cover recently. Wide receiver Chris Godwin made the cover of Eastbay Magazine the week before Brady appeared on Madden 22.
“Growing up getting the Eastbay magazines every month to now holding one in my hand with me on the cover is surreal! Excited and grateful to be the June cover athlete for Eastbay,” Godwin wrote on June 7.
Godwin made the cover of the sporting goods magazine after another standout season with the Bucs in 2020. He had 65 reception, 840 yards, and seven touchdowns in 2020.
Winding up on Eastbay kicked off a big stint of offseason activity for Godwin. He also wrote a guest column for Peter King’s Football Morning in America, which ran on Monday.
“Thanks for the opportunity Peter King,” Godwin wrote. “Very much appreciated.”
Only fitting for Godwin to thank King as he used gratitude as a main theme for the column.
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For Godwin, Gratitude Doesn’t Hinge on Success
So much has gone right for Godwin his year from winning the Super Bowl to getting married, but he doesn’t consider those things the cause for his gratitude.
“Of course I’m going to be happy, and be positive, and have a tremendous amount of gratitude for where I am in life,” Godwin wrote in his guest column. “But part of that gratitude is my attitude. It always has been. The best people I’ve met have one thing in common, and it’s that they choose a positive attitude. That doesn’t just automatically come with things like money or fame.”
Godwin sees gratitude as “something that’s attainable for everyone.”
“No, you don’t need to win a Super Bowl or get married to have gratitude,” Godwin wrote in his guest column. “It’s a mentality shift. It’s choosing to see the good in a given situation over the bad. Life throws curveballs at all of us, some more than others, but acknowledging how amazing it is to be alive each day and finding light in even our darkest moment is a beautiful thing.”
Godwin’s Attitude of Gratitude
Godwin explained that he’s “more than football player” when it comes to what he’s grateful for.
“I’m most grateful to be alive and to have loved ones,” Godwin wrote in his guest column. “I’m grateful to be able to have all my loved ones present when I married my best friend, a day that was long overdue. This practice of gratitude has been such an eye opener for me because I now look at life through a different lens. There are fewer things that I feel I ‘have to’ do. Instead, I ‘get to’ do them. It’s greatly impacted my overall mood and my appreciation for life in every way. It’s made me more understanding and compassionate.”
Notably, he also wrote in his “10 Things I Think I Think” segment that he emphasizes caution with feelings of anger and to think through things first. The former Pro Bowler wrote that he wanted to emphasize a positive attitude and “adding something good to people’s lives” when writing his guest column.
Godwin Learning More Than X’s and O’s From Brady
Godwin described Bucs quarterback Tom Brady as an example of having a positive attitude. The Bucs receiver wrote about his first experiences of meeting and working with Brady in addition to a few behind-the-scenes highlights from the 2020 season.
“For someone who’s so accomplished and as highly regarded as he is, he was humble and receptive to the thoughts and opinions of his new teammates,” Godwin wrote about his first workout with Brady. “We helped teach him the playbook, and he was super-receptive.”
Despite being the Bucs’ second-leading receiver in 2020, Godwin had ups and downs with injuries and explained how he valued Brady and the team’s confidence in him. Godwin highlighted the time when Brady kept throwing to him in the NFC Championship game despite dropping four passes at Washington in the Wild Card round.
“The trust was there, which was huge to me,” Godwin wrote.