At the recent Virtualization Technology Users Group 2017 Winter Warmer at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA, discussion covered the future of VMware Inc.’s market dominance, hyper-converged infrastructure and … Super Bowl LI.

Stu Miniman (@stu), senior analyst at Wikibon and host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, spoke to Deion Branch (@deionbranch84), Super Bowl XXXIX Champion/MVP, during the event. Branch was a special guest at the Winter Warmer 2017 Happy Hour.

A former New England Patriot, Branch led the team to a Super Bowl victory in 2005. (The AFC title game between the Patriots and the Steelers will be played January 22, 2017, at Gillette Stadium.) Branch shared memories of his time with the Patriots, recounting tales of Tom Brady’s competitive nature on and off the field.

“I’ll never forget that one day I beat him in the locker room. It was during training camp,” he said. “We were playing ping pong, and Tom lost like three times in a row. There were like 15 guys waiting for next, and [Tom] just completely broke all the paddles. He was so mad. But it just goes to show you how competitive this guy is. He wants to win. I mean win at everything.”

Picking an MVP’s brain for Super Bowl picks

Perhaps experiences like this shape Branch’s outlook on the upcoming championship game at Gillette Stadium.

Pressed for a prediction, Branch said, “I think the guys are going to go out and take care of business. Who knows man — 24-20 Patriots. You know, the guys are going to pull it off and get back to the Super Bowl and get another ring.”

From Gillette Stadium, that’s a wrap for VTUG (and one former Patriot’s possibly biased Super Bowl pick).

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of VTUG Winter Warmer 2017.

Photo by SiliconANGLE