Tom Brady Once Got Emotional While Opening Up About Being Passed Over During NFL Draft
It’s safe to say that if any NFL franchise had known what Tom Brady would one day become, they would not have passed him up — multiple times — in the 2000 NFL Draft.
In a 2011 interview for ESPN documentary The Brady Six, Brady and his father recalled the pain they felt while waiting to hear his name called in the draft. Even though Brady had won multiple Super Bowls by then, and solidified his place as a force in the league, the memories still brought tears to his eyes.
“We were led to believe that he was going to be drafted, possibly second round, probably third round,” Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr., told ESPN. “They kept calling quarterback names, and we kept being stunned.”
The second and third rounds passed, and still, Brady’s name wasn’t called.
“We were very distraught,” Brady Sr. said. “With each name, it was becoming worse and worse.”
Six quarterbacks — Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger, and Spergon Wynn — had been taken ahead of the fledgling footballer from the University of Michigan.
“It was hard,” Brady told the outlet in 2011. “I remember taking a walk with my dad and mom around the block …”
He returned home by the middle of the sixth round, but had to leave the house once again.
“It was just a tough day, you know?” he said. “I just remember being there with my mom and dad.”
Then, Brady teared up when reminiscing about his parents’ encouragement on one of the most significant days of his life.
“You know, they were just so supportive of me,” he said through tears. “They take it as emotional as I do. Finally, when the Patriots called, I was so excited. I was, like, ‘I don’t have to be an insurance salesman,’ you know?”
Brady joined the New England Patriots when the team selected him as the 199th pick in the sixth round of the 2000 draft.
“My family was there,” Brady said in the 2011 documentary. “We were all excited, and thank God I got picked here.”
He would go on to start in the Super Bowl just two seasons later, earning his first of five wins (so far). Brady, now 41, will be going for his sixth ring this year when he and the Patriots face the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 53 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Super Bowl 53 will air Sunday, Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. ET. on CBS.