Part 3
Lloyd Carr, his coach at Michigan, later said Brady was the smartest player he ever coached. Think about that. Not the strongest. Not the fastest. The smartest. The guy who knew where every defender was going before they did. But NFL scouts? They saw a skinny kid with average arm strength. They saw the 5-2 something in the 40. They saw the guy who didn't wow you throwing the ball. As the transcript puts it: 'When you watch Tom, you saw this tall, gangly looking kid... ran a 5-2 something, one of the slowest quarterbacks in the combine... did he wow you throwing the ball? There were some other guys that could shoot it and he had just an okay arm.' That's the scouting report. That's the doubt.
So the 2000 NFL Draft comes along. Brady waits. And waits. Six rounds. 199th overall. He goes to the New England Patriots. You're going to ask: what did he walk into? A backup job behind Drew Bledsoe, who had just signed a $103 million contract. Brady was fourth on the depth chart. Fourth. He spent his rookie year learning, barely playing. But here's the thing: he practiced like his life depended on it. He said it himself: 'The only way to play well is to practice well.' That's not a quote from a guy who thinks he's a backup. That's a quote from a guy who's already planning to take the job.
And let's not forget the six quarterbacks picked before him. Chad Pennington went in the first round. Chris Redman in the third. Giovanni Carmazzi in the third. Tee Martin in the fifth. Spurgeon Wynn in the sixth. Marc Bulger in the sixth. You know how many of them won a Super Bowl as a starter? Zero. Brady won seven. That's not a knock on them. It's a testament to the fact that the draft is an imperfect science. And Brady was the ultimate outlier.
Then 2001 happens. Week 2. Bledsoe gets injured against the Jets. Mo Lewis knocks him out of the game. Brady comes in. And the rest is history. He goes 11-3 as a starter. He leads the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXVI against the Rams—the greatest show on turf. The Rams were 14-point favorites. The Patriots were supposed to be a speed bump. Instead, they won 20-17 on a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal. Brady is named Super Bowl MVP. But here's what you might not remember: nobody believed it was real. They called him a system quarterback. They said Bill Belichick's defense won that ring. They said Brady was just a game manager. They were wrong.
You're going to ask: did Belichick ever think about going back to Bledsoe? He did. But he stuck with Brady. That's the kind of trust you earn in practice. Brady's first start was against the Colts in Week 3 of 2001. Patriots won 44-13. He never looked back. The Rams had Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce. They were called the Greatest Show on Turf for a reason. And Brady outdueled them when it mattered. That's not a system. That's a quarterback.
That win was the start of a dynasty. Nine Super Bowl appearances. Six wins with New England. Then a seventh with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021. But the early years are the ones that matter, because that's when the doubters had the loudest voices. The 'system quarterback' label followed him like a shadow. The tuck rule game. The Panthers Super Bowl. The Eagles rematch. Each time, Brady proved he wasn't just a guy handing the ball off. He was the reason they won.
Let's talk about the tuck rule game. January 19, 2002. AFC Divisional round. Patriots vs Raiders. Snow. Brady looks like he fumbles. The refs huddle. They call it an incomplete pass because of the tuck rule. Patriots keep the ball. Adam Vinatieri kicks the game-tying field goal. Then the game-winner. Patriots win. People still argue about that call. But here's what they forget: Brady drove them into position. He didn't just get lucky. He took advantage. That's what winners do.
Then Super Bowl XXXVIII against the Carolina Panthers. Patriots win 32-29. Brady throws for 354 yards and three touchdowns. Not a game manager. Then Super Bowl XXXIX against the Philadelphia Eagles. Patriots win 24-21. Brady completes 23 of 33 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. He doesn't just manage the game. He wins it. The Eagles' defense was supposed to rattle him. It didn't. That's mental toughness.
You're going to ask: what about the 'system quarterback' thing? People said Belichick's system made Brady. That Brady was replaceable. But then Brady kept winning. In 2007, he threw for 50 touchdowns and won NFL MVP. He won three NFL MVPs. He made 15 Pro Bowls. He became the all-time leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns. He won seven Super Bowls. And remember that draft report? 'Poor build, skinny, lacks great physical stature and strength, lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush, lacks a really strong arm, can't drive the ball downfield, does not throw a really tight spiral, system-type player who can get exposed if forced to add lift, and gets knocked down easily.' That's the report. Brady's response? 'That kind of gets me fired up because I'm thinking, you know what the hell these people know? I mean, that sounds like Joe Montana right there.'
