Tom Brady: The League's Biggest Draft Blunder

[TedSlimmJr]

1999 Michigan vs. Indiana:

[TedSlimmJr]

The following week versus Northwestern....


1999 Michigan vs. Northwestern:

[WVDolphan]

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Not particularly about football in the South, but Ive read quite a few number of biographies, autobiographies, and sports books in general. This is still the best I have ever read. Great info that you can apply to your own life and profession as well as some great football strategy.

[jamvinny]

"Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer" by Warren St. John is a good start...

I'd also recommend the book "Friday Night Lights" to get an idea about high school football.

Any of the books on Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant would also be good, particularly his autobiography if you can get your hands on it.

Thanks TedSlimm. Now on to watching Brady.
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[jamvinny]

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Not particularly about football in the South, but Ive read quite a few number of biographies, autobiographies, and sports books in general. This is still the best I have ever read. Great info that you can apply to your own life and profession as well as some great football strategy.

Appreciate the recommendation WV.

Will check it out as I'm not as bitter about Saban as some folk are on here.

[Roman529]

If Drew Bledsoe hadn't gotten hurt for the Patriots, who is to say that Tom Brady may not have ended up being like Brady Quinn? Sometimes great QB's get stuck with crappy teams and never amount to much. Sometimes they get stuck with crappy coaches, instead of with a coach like Belichick or Bill Walsh. Lots of things have to go right. Most experts didn't think Brady would turn out to be more than a backup QB in the NFL, but you also cannot measure things like desire and effort, and football intelligence.

[dlockz]

The reason players like Brady get overlooked in draft has too much to do with combines and pro days. how scouts ignore 4 years of actual game film for how someone runs , throws and catches in shorts is beyond stupid. The combine and such should be to confirm what you think you have seen on film, this is why players like Ronnie Brown and Ted Ginn get taken too high.

[Wildbill3]

The reason players like Brady get overlooked in draft has too much to do with combines and pro days. how scouts ignore 4 years of actual game film for how someone runs , throws and catches in shorts is beyond stupid. The combine and such should be to confirm what you think you have seen on film, this is why players like Ronnie Brown and Ted Ginn get taken too high.

in all fairness to ted ginn, his family declined to participate at the combine, so we can only go off the game tape for them. but I guess the coaches tape was a bit different than the stuff we saw on tv, because on tv I think you only ever see them cheering in the stands.

[ChambersWI]

The reason players like Brady get overlooked in draft has too much to do with combines and pro days. how scouts ignore 4 years of actual game film for how someone runs , throws and catches in shorts is beyond stupid. The combine and such should be to confirm what you think you have seen on film, this is why players like Ronnie Brown and Ted Ginn get taken too high.

Ronnie was actually a high riser even before that. He was seen as a more rounded player than Cadillac and many felt as their senior seasons went on, Ronnie would be better in the pros. Sadly, both were robbed of a lot of their assets due to injuries.

Ted Ginn is another issue, that I could go on a huge rant on that might get me banned. Short version, I watched Ted Ginn for 3 years at Ohio State. He had wheels, but he was extremely underdeveloped as a WR. A lot of his big plays came from bubble screens, reverses, returns, and the occasional deep pass from Troy Smith. I had seen Ginn completely taken out of games if a CB roughed him up a little bit. I got into fights with the old draft gurus because I said Ginn was not worth a 1st round pick. I thought he could be usefull if you used special packages for him (like Ohio State did) but he was not a pure WR.

[dolphone]

In the "Football and Decision Making" chapter of his book The Essential Smart Football, Chris Brown talks alot about Brady. He mentions how Brady was reviewing game tape with another author and after a clip of Brady completing a pass, the author asked him why he threw it to that particular receiver. Brady just said "I just felt like he was open." The author asked, "That's it? And Brady answered "That's it".

The rest of the chapter talks about athletic intelligence and how the really good athletes, no matter the sport or position really have that intelligence and reaction where basically thought and action are one and the same. The athlete's thoughts and decisions in the heat of battle are reactionary, almost raw instincts. I think that sums up Tom Brady. He's not the most physically gifted quarterback to every throw a spiral but he oozes athletic intelligence and enough intangibles for 4 quarterbacks.

I put him in that same class with the best there's ever been at sports. They all have that "thing". That thing that you have no idea what it is but it just makes them great, beyond their physical gifts. Ali, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Bobby Jones, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Federer, Nicholas all make the list. They do or have done things that almost make you think they're not human.

That's the famous "it". Some QBs have it, some don't. I don't think it's easy to acquire, if at all. I do feel you can "lose" it, if your confidence gets shattered enough...

You can learn technique, improve footwork, muscle up... but you gotta have that factor.