Brady's Success A Testament To Dedication & Hard Work
Kevin Krystofiak was the starting quarterback of the freshman football team at Junipero Serra High in Calif., in 1991. The team went 0-8 that season. "I was a really bad quarterback," Krystofiak said.
That does not say very much for Brady, who spent the year as Krystofiak's backup.
"The thing about Tom," Krystofiak said, "is that he was never given anything."
When someone is as accomplished as Brady -- it only makes sense that he got every break along the way. But Brady is actually distinguished by all the breaks that went against him, starting in '91, and how he responded to each one. The setbacks are what separate him.
As a sophomore, Brady started at quarterback for the JV.
After the season Brady promptly went home and convinced his parents to find him a personal trainer, as well as an off-season quarterback coach.
In two seasons on the varsity team, Brady's record was a modest 11-9. He signed with Michigan. He was beaten out first by Scott Dreisbach, then by Brian Griese. Brady charged into the Michigan football office, looking for head coach Lloyd Carr, intent on transferring to Cal.
Instead of transferring, he sought out a sports psychologist. From the psychologist, he learned to worry less about the other quarterbacks on the roster and more about himself.
"That was the low point," said Scot Loeffler, who played with Brady at Michigan. "But those hard times paid off.”
As a junior at Michigan, Brady finally won the starting quarterback job.
During his Senior season Brady was the starter, but Coach Carr made him share the position with Drew Henson during his senior year. Brady played the first quarter, Henson the second, and then Carr decided who would start the third.
Brady ended up proving the rotation ridiculous. Halfway through the season Carr decided that Brady should be taking all the snaps.
The fact that Brady was not the full-time starter during his senior season, that he weighed only 190 pounds and that his delivery was a little bit unorthodox, scared some NFL scouts away.
New England picked him in the sixth round, 199th overall, behind quarterbacks such as Giovanni Carmazzi and Spergon Wynn. Not long after the draft, Brady ran into Patriots' owner Robert Kraft for the first time, Brady extended his hand, introduced himself, and said in all seriousness: "Mr. Kraft, I'm the best decision your organization has ever made."
It was cocky, but he believed in himself. Heading into his first training camp, Brady was listed as New England's fourth-string quarterback. By the end of his first season, he was not much better.
Desperate to learn the offense and improve his delivery, Brady worked tirelessly with New England quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein. But in August '01, during training camp at Bryant College, Rehbein died of a heart attack.
On the eve of the '01 season, Coach Belichick announced that Brady, would back up Bledsoe. In the second game of the season, Bledsoe was injured, and Belichick announced that Brady would start against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Patriots thumped the Colts, 44-13, but it was not all happily ever after. They lost the next week at Miami. Three weeks after that, Brady threw four interceptions in the fourth quarter of a loss to Denver. But just as Brady responded at Serra High School and at the University of Michigan, he reset himself and won 11 of the next 12 games, including his first Super Bowl.
Since then, he has become the definition of success. It's hard to remember a time that Brady was not the face of football. But Brady remembers his lean years vividly. They are what still drives him.
Before his last Super Bowl, three years ago in Jacksonville, Brady was asked if he had any flaws, and his response was surprisingly candid. "There are plenty of things I'm deficient at," he said. "I'm not very fast, never had the best arm, and never been very strong.”
"He went from being a backup in high school, to almost transferring from Michigan, to splitting time with a freshman quarterback during his senior year, to being a sixth-round draft pick to going to the Super Bowl," Krystofiak said. "He never quit and he never made excuses, he just kept working and believing in himself."
