Tom Brady has never been one to take the easy road. Now a seven-time Super Bowl champion, he is making clear he expects the same mindset from everyone else.

Brady posted a response on his Instagram Stories after a fan shared a clip of him playing in a 2010 Patriots preseason game, with five minutes left in the third quarter. His message was direct.

“Preseason… Regular season… I never wanted to be taken off the field. Practice makes perfect… Too many people looking for easy ways out these days. When you’re a football player, and it’s football season, your job is to play football,” Brady wrote.

Even though Brady is the modern GOAT, he was also the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL draft. He worked his way up to winning seven Super Bowls after being buried deep in the depth chart at one point. He had to make every snap count.

On August 26, 2010 (the game captured in the clip), Brady started against the Rams and stayed in until the first series of the fourth quarter. He finished 18-of-22 for 273 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, posting a 158.0 passer rating. One of those scores was a 65-yard touchdown to Moss in the third quarter, also shown in the clip.

Brady believes repetitions matter even when the game does not count toward the standings.

Brady’s own path makes that mindset easier to understand. When he arrived at Michigan, he was seventh on the quarterback depth chart. Years later, Brady explained that he had to work his way up.

“I had to learn from being seventh QB on the depth chart to moving up to third to ultimately being a starter,” he said.

That same fight followed him into the NFL. The Patriots selected Brady 199th overall in the sixth round of the 2000 draft, and he entered training camp behind Drew Bledsoe, John Friesz and Michael Bishop. His own rookie diary shows how seriously he approached the chance, with Brady writing that he was becoming more comfortable running the Patriots’ offense and learning its details. The Patriots ultimately kept four quarterbacks on the roster because they were unwilling to risk losing Brady on waivers.

The preseason gave him a small but important stage that summer. In the Hall of Fame Game against San Francisco, Brady completed 3 of 4 passes for 28 yards in his first NFL appearance. Four days later against Detroit, he went 10 of 15 for 129 yards, including a 47-yard completion to Sean Morey that helped set up Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal. Through those first two games, Brady was 13-of-19 for 157 yards.

That is the part of Brady’s message that fits his own story. He was not a highly drafted quarterback who walked into a guaranteed opportunity. He spent years climbing the depth chart. His preseason comments today may sound harsh toward players who want out of exhibition games, but they also reflect the way Brady viewed his own opportunities: every snap was a chance to prove he belonged.