#10

 

TOM BRADY

He was just another guy who wanted to play pro football.

When Tom Brady left the University of Michigan following the 1999 season, there was a pretty good chance he would get drafted.

But he was definitely not a star. He might get taken in the fifth, sixth, or seventh round, and he would have a chance to win a spot as a backup quarterback. When it came to things like starting, winning, and collecting championships, that did not appear to be in Brady’s grasp.

But the New England Patriots decided to take a chance on Brady in the 2000 NFL Draft. Head coach Bill Belichick thought Brady was worthy of a sixth-round pick, and he made him the 199th player selected that year. Brady was going to get the chance to back up Drew Bledsoe, and that meant holding a clipboard on the sidelines and learning the plays.

That’s what Brady did in his rookie year, and he threw just three passes that season. However, when Bledsoe suffered a sheared blood vessel in his chest after getting hammered against the New York Jets, the Patriots turned over their offense and their team to Brady.

It has turned out be one of the most fortuitous moves in the history of the franchise. It shouldn’t have been, because Brady was still the same skinny, unathletic quarterback he had been when the Patriots drafted him.

However, he knew the playbook backwards and forwards and he was blessed with the confidence that he could exploit any opponent.

Brady would go on to become one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game, and he would lead New England to three Super Bowl championships and five appearances in the big game.

Instead of being intimidated by his circumstances, Brady was invigorated by them.

While he did not have the greatest arm strength or the quickest release, Brady quickly showed he was able to diagnose exactly what the defense wanted to do and make the right play call at the key moment.

Brady also possessed unfailing accuracy with his passes. Since New England was a team with a strong defense and a productive ground game in 2001, he did not have to throw the ball all over the lot to win games.

He simply had to take what the defense gave him and deliver the ball to his receivers in a place where they could catch it and still protect themselves at the right time.

Brady exceeded all of Belichick’s expectations during that season. After taking over for Bledsoe, he led the Patriots to an 11-3 record. He completed 264 of 413 passes for 2,843 yards with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

More than the numbers, it was Brady’s manner that converted the New England lockerroom and the coach’s room into believers. He played with a confidence that no sixth-round draft choice had the right to possess. He played as if he knew he would always make the right choice and come through at the biggest moment.

If that violated NFL protocol, Belichick was not about to tell him. He certainly wasn’t going to say anything when the Pats met the heavily favored St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans.

The Pats were upstarts who had managed to overcome the Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers to earn their spot in the Super Bowl. The Rams were an offensive juggernaut with Kurt Warner at quarterback and all-purpose stud Marshall Faulk at the running back position.

Brady played with the same poise and guile that he had demonstrated throughout the season. He completed 16-of-27 passes for 145 yards with one touchdown and he did not throw an interception. His scoring pass to David Patten near the end of the second quarter gave the Patriots a 14-3 halftime lead.

But the Rams would mount a second-half comeback that would see them tie the score at 17-17 with 1:30 remaining. Overtime was seemingly on the horizon, as Belichick was not about to trust Brady in the final stages of the fourth quarter.

Well, that’s what most of the football world believed, but it was not true. Belichick turned Brady loose and the second-year quarterback directed an eight-play, 53-yard drive that set up placekicker Adam Vinatieri with a game-winning 48-yard field goal attempt.

Vinatieri blasted the ball through the uprights, the Patriots won the Super Bowl, and the legend of Brady was born.

He would go on to lead the Patriots to two more Super Bowl titles in the next three seasons, and that initial championship was the trigger that led Brady to the top of the football world.

He has had a Hall of Fame career that has seen him complete 4,178 passes in 6,586 attempts while throwing for 49,149 yards with 359 touchdowns and 134 interceptions through the 2013 NFL season.

While the numbers have allowed Brady to take a spot with the top quarterbacks in the history of the game, the yardage and touchdown totals have never been his driving factors.

“It’s great to put up yardage totals and throw for a lot of touchdowns, but it’s only great when it helps your team win,” Brady explained in 2012. “That’s the reason for playing football, and that has always driven me no matter what level I have played at. We are out there to win games and championships and every player has to do what they are capable of to help their team win.

“If that means throwing short passes, medium-range passes, or long passes, that’s just what I will do. If it means handing the ball off 15 times in a row, that’s what I am going to do. That’s why I have played and that’s why I continue to play. Simply to win. I want another championship and another ring.”

Few have done it better than Brady over the years.

He may not have had the strongest arm, the most picture-perfect delivery, or been as athletic as the top quarterbacks in the game, but it’s hard to find anyone who has been a better leader or more productive throughout his brilliant career.