Tom Brady

Part 1: The Michigan Fan Perspective of Tom Brady’s Michigan Years

     I wrote this on January 21 while watching Tom Brady and the New England Patriots come from behind, again, to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFC

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Championship and advance to Super Bowl LII.
     Many Michigan fans are fans of Tom Brady and thus the New England Patriots. Count me as one of them.
     I find this odd because when Brady was at Michigan he was not necessarily a fan favorite.
     Brady was at Michigan from 1996 through 1999. He was a back-up quarterback for his first two seasons, actually 7th on the depth chart when he first arrived, to Brian Griese who led Michigan to an undefeated season and a National Championship in 1997. In 1998 and 1999 after Griese, Brady was essentially the starter. In 1998, the team went 10-3, 7-1 in the Big Ten and tied for first, and went to the Citrus Bowl and beat Arkansas. In 1999, the team had an even better record. They went 12 -2 and beat Alabama in the Orange Bowl in an overtime thriller.
     There are two reasons that Brady was not a fan favorite. First, after winning the National Championship in 1998, every Michigan fan in the universe just assuming it was the start of National Championship dynasty that probably would have lasted to this day. That vision was crushed in the first two games of the 1998 season with Tom Brady under center. They lost to Notre Dame, 36 - 20, and Syracuse, 38 - 28. Our beloved Wolverines were 12 - 0 in 1997 and began the 1998 season 0 - 2. That did not sit well with the fanbase. The only other game they lost that season was to Ohio State, 31 - 16.
     After the 0 - 2 start, fans were sure that this fellow, Tom Brady, was not the guy. There was a freshman, Drew Henson, from Brighton, MI who came in as the second coming of, well actually the second coming of no one. He came in the QB that was going to break the mold and rewrite all the records not only at Michigan but in all of college football and then go on to do the same in the NFL. Besides this hype, he was also a baseball phenom of equal, if not greater potential.
    So with that 0 - 2 start, everyone was clamoring for Henson. “Put the kid in. Let’s get this thing going. Let him fulfill his promise and destiny and in turn win four National Championships in a row.” While this may sound exaggerated, the thinking was certainly pro-Henson.
     Lloyd Carr mostly stuck with Brady, though Henson got some playing time in both seasons. In 1999, the team had a better record, 10 - 2. With a 5 - 0 start, we were all thinking a repeat of 1997 was at hand. Then we lost two in a row again to Michigan State and Illinois. After that we ran the table 5 - 0 again. This was good enough for 2nd place in the Big Ten. Not good enough and most blamed that it on Carr for favoring Brady over Henson.
     This completely overlooked the records that Brady set that year, perhaps a glimpse of thing to come. He completed 34 passes in the Orange Bowl victory over Alabama. He had 4 touchdown passes in that game. He had 214 completions and and 215.5 passing yards per game which were single season records at that time. He was the real deal, but we didn’t know it.
     These stats are given a most odd platoon system Coach Carr had for the first six games. Brady would start. Henson would play the 2nd quarter. Whoever did better would start the second half. In the loss to MSU, Michigan did not score in the first quarter. As planned, Henson started the 2nd quarter and put 10 points on the board. at the end of the half State led 16 - 10. Henson got the nod and started the 2nd half and could do nothing. Michigan State, however, scored two touchdowns. At the start of the 4th quarter is MSU 30, Michigan 10. Carr decided to go back to Brady. He put on a show winning the 4th quarter 21 - 7. After the loss to Illinois in the next game, Brady was the starter and the platoon system trash canned.
     In 2000 with Brady gone, Henson threw for 303 yards against Ohio State beating the Buckeyes 38 - 26. Michigan went on to beat Auburn in the Citrus. After that season, Henson signed with the NY Yankees and left Michigan and football behind. Henson’s baseball career did not pan out. He was to be the equivalent or better of Derek Jeter at third base. But, that did not pan out, he only had one major league hit. The Yankees turned to Alex Rodriguez and Henson tried to return to football. It was too late. He never panned out. I always thought that George Steinbrenner a staunch Ohio State fan pulled Henson out of Michigan partially to help the Buckeyes first year coach, Jim Tressel, in 2001. It’s just a theory.
     There is a brilliant article that provides even more details and insights on the Brady - Henson competition. It was a January 9, 2012 piece in Sports Illustrated by Michael Rosenberg: Tom Brady As You Forgot Him.

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything.

Part 2: Tom Brady in the NFL
     Upon the end of the 1999 season, Brady entered the NFL draft. He was

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drafted but it was not impressive. He was drafted in the sixth round and the 199th player drafted overall. Of course, he was drafted by the New England Patriots. As Drew Bledsoe was the veteran starter, Brady was a backup again. In this case he was 4th string or the number 3 backup. In his first NFL season, he saw little action and when he did he was nothing special at all. He was 1 for 3 in passing for a whopping 6 yards. But that one pass was for a touchdown in a losing effort agains the Lions.
     In 2001, Brady’s second season with New England, the New England starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, went down with a season ending injury in game two. Brady came in but the Patriots lost the game and were 0 - 2 on the season. In the next 8 games, the Patriots with Brady as quarterback went 5 - 3. Then, the Brady magic really clicked in. The Patriots won the next 5 regular season game to qualify for the play-offs. They then ran the table to win Super Bowl XXXVI.
     Since then the Patriots under Brady and Belichick have been the best franchise in the NFL to date including the storied Green Bay Packers of the Vince Lombardi era. Brady and Belichick have been to the Super Bowl 7 times and they have won 5 times. The two losses were in 2007 and 2011 were both to the New York Giants.
     In the transition from college to the NFL, it is really hard to predict how successful a quarterback will be. There are lists of great college quarterbacks who just never panned out in the NFL. There is also many examples of no-name college quarterbacks who have had great success in the NFL. Brady certainly qualifies in this regard. Basically, in the NFL, plays unfold faster and quarterbacks have to be able read, react, and execute faster. Clearly, not everyone can do that which explains why gifted college quarterbacks falter. It also explains how an unknown college quarterback can come out of seemingly nowhere and succeed in the NFL. As far as I know, there is no good way to gauge this ability to read and react short just getting in there and doing that.
     Beyond this Brady is dedicated to being the best. Like Lexus, his personal tenet is the relentless pursuit of perfection. He is strict about his training, diet, sleep, preparation, and practice. There was a January 12, 2016 article in the Wall Street Journal, Tom Brady Wants to Play Catch.”

Tom Brady, one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, intimidates defenses. He intimidates opposing coaches. And he can intimidate teammates and friends with just one simple question: “Wanna have a catch?” 

Having a “catch” is typically one of the simpler transactions in sports. It’s so easy it’s performed by tailgaters in parking lots and kids on kindergarten playgrounds. You throw the ball, the other person catches it and throws it back. This is how most people in Brady’s inner circle assumed their games of catch would go. They were wrong.

     These “play catch” sessions were repetitive running of the same play with Brady being agitated if his throws were off by a few inches from the exact spot that would both guarentee a catch and the most yards after the catch. End after end basically said the same thing: The have never seen a quarterback with such an intense work ethic.
     As mentioned above, I started writing this before watching the Jaguars v Patriots AFC Championship Game in which Tom Brady did what he has done many times. He led a 4th quarter comeback to win the game and advance to the Super Bowl. It was a game in which Jacksonville outplayed New England on both side of the ball for three plus quarters.
     This was dramatic and it was pure Brady. He did it last year in an even more dramatic comeback in Super Bowl LI. The Atlanta Falcons dominated the Patriots for almost 3 Quarters and led 28 - 3. With only a few minutes left in the 3rd Quarter, Brady kicked it up to hyper-drive and scored the next 25 points to tie the game and take it into overtime in which the Patriots won the toss, drove for a touchdown, and won the game.
     Tom Brady did this at the age of 39 which is old age for an NFL quarterback. This year, obviously, he is 40. It is unclear if and when he might retire. He seems to be as good as he ever was. One could make the case that he may even be at his best.
     One question that comes up is whether he is the best that ever was? Is he the GOAT, which a FB abbreviation the Greatest of All Time. Most New England fans have already crowned him as such. There are probably a lot of Michigan fans, who have become New England fans, that agree. If he is not the greatest of all time, he has to be in the top 5. I tend to think that the number of Super Bowl appearances and wins make him the best ever in the ultimate measure: championships. This is not to take away from other great quarterbacks I like including Aaron Rogers, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Ben Roethlisberger, Roger Staubach, John Unitas, Y. A. Title, Bob Greise, and Dan Merino. There are so many others.
     Super Bowl LII is later this afternoon. It promises to be a good game. The Eagles have a great defense that will pressure Brady more than he has been pressured all year. Nick Foles will lead the Eagles on offense. Everyone thought the Eagles were done when Carson Wentz was injured. But, Foles came in, took the helm, and has performed admirably. To me he is the Earl Morrall of this era. Everyone is looking for a good exciting game.
     I will watch with interest and root for the Patriots and I will root for Tom Brady like I should have rooted for him when he was at Michigan.

Part 3 of this post will be written in the few days after the Super Bowl.