Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 955 is my conversation with Lawrence Guy, the NFL defensive lineman and Super Bowl champion who won the title with the New England Patriots after the 2018 season. We get into fishing, teaching his kids to fish, and how the mindset he built at the highest level of football — including playing with Tom Brady and under Bill Belichick — carries over to the water and to everyday life.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Lawrence Guy is an NFL defensive lineman and a Super Bowl champion, having won the title with the New England Patriots after the 2018 season. In this episode he talks about fishing, teaching his kids to fish, and how the mindset he built playing at the highest level of football — including alongside Tom Brady and under Bill Belichick — carries over to the water and to life.
Lawrence Guy is a Super Bowl champion who won with the New England Patriots following the 2018 season, playing on a championship team alongside some of the most accomplished players in the game. He reflects in the episode on what it actually felt like to reach the Super Bowl — the goal every kid who picks up a football dreams about — and then to win it.
Lawrence is teaching his young kids to fish, starting his five-year-old on a simple push-button rod, and he uses it to teach patience and process. His point is that you cannot catch a fish without the whole process — the line, the reel, the lure, the bait — and that learning to work through that process is exactly how you become good at anything, from football to life.
Lawrence draws a direct line between the focus required on a football field — where everyone is a super athlete and everything moves incredibly fast — and the focus a fishing guide needs while reading birds, wind, and water all at once. He talks about how fishing helps fill the competitive void after an ultra-competitive career, and how the patience and problem-solving translate both ways.
Lawrence reflects on playing with Tom Brady and under Bill Belichick on a Super Bowl-winning team, and the standards and mindset that environment demanded. He connects those lessons about preparation, focus, and handling frustration to fishing — noting how easy it is to get flustered, blame the reel, and lose your composure when things go wrong, on the field or on the water.
Lawrence is honest that frustration is part of both football and fishing — you can sit there, blame the reel, throw it, cut your line on a backlash, and do everything you do when you are flustered. The lesson he carries from elite sports is that staying composed and working the process is what separates the people who succeed from the people who give up.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 955 with Lawrence Guy is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I have taken a lot of NFL athletes and former athletes fishing over the years, and I keep noticing the same thing: the people who go deepest into fishing often have a background in high-level sports. Lawrence is a Super Bowl champion who is now teaching his own kids to fish, and I wanted to dig into why fishing seems to scratch the same itch that elite competition does. I came into this one as a fan and a student of mindset.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the whole conversation.
Lawrence reflects on reaching and winning the Super Bowl with the Patriots — the goal every kid who picks up a football dreams about, and then actually being there. He is humble about it, and the way he describes the journey, including the realities of the body and the surgeries that come with the game, makes the achievement feel earned rather than glamorized. Listen to him tell it in his own words.
Lawrence started his five-year-old on a simple push-button rod, and the kid picked it up in thirty minutes. But the real lesson is patience and process. You cannot catch a fish without the line, the reel, the lure, the bait — the whole process — and Lawrence uses that to teach his kids the same thing that makes you good at football, or anything. Press play to hear how he frames it for his kids.
This is the heart of the conversation. Lawrence describes a football field full of super athletes where everything moves impossibly fast, and ties it to what a fishing guide processes — birds, wind, water — all at once. He talks about how fishing fills the competitive void after an ultra-competitive career, and how the focus and problem-solving move in both directions. Press play in the YouTube player above to hear it.
Lawrence reflects on playing with Tom Brady and under Bill Belichick on a championship team, and the standards that environment demanded. He connects those lessons about preparation, focus, and composure to fishing — and to the reality that it is easy to get flustered, blame the reel, and lose your cool when things go sideways. The discipline to keep working the process is what carries over. Listen to that section.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
The day after talking to Lawrence, what stuck with me is how cleanly the lessons move between a Super Bowl locker room and a fishing trip with your kids. Process over outcome, composure over frustration, and showing up to do the work — those are the same whether you are a defensive lineman or a five-year-old learning a push-button reel.
The other thing I appreciated was his humility. A Super Bowl champion who is most excited about teaching his kids patience on the water. That is the kind of guest this show is built for.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 955 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Lawrence Guy is an NFL defensive lineman and a Super Bowl champion who won the title with the New England Patriots after the 2018 season, playing alongside Tom Brady and under head coach Bill Belichick. Off the field he is a dedicated father teaching his kids to fish, and he applies the mindset, discipline, and composure he built at the highest level of professional football to fishing and everyday life.
Subscribe to get the latest episodes, show notes, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.