Like many NBA greats, three-time Sixth Man of the Year winner, Jamal Crawford, spent only one season in college. The retired guard enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1999, and averaged 16.6 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.8 rebounds, before declaring for the 2000 NBA draft. However, he isn’t the most famous athlete to leave Michigan that year. That distinction belongs to Tom Brady.
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The seven-time Super Bowl champion spent five years in college but unlike Crawford, he wasn’t a star from the outset. Brady spent his first three years at Michigan deep on the program’s quarterback depth chart. When he finally got his opportunity, he had to fend off a two-sport prodigy, who was employed by the New York Yankees and gunning for his job.
Explaining what transpired during his and Brady’s sole year together in Michigan, Crawford said on the Captain Jack Podcast,
“Brady didn’t even start his freshman, sophomore year. This dude named Drew Henson, he was a Yankees pitcher and he had a lot of hype. So they had him starting at quarterback. And the team manager’s like, ‘Man, I’m telling you, if they play Brady, I’m telling it’s gonna change everything.’ And they start playing him his junior year I believe, and bro, he took off.”
In two seasons as the starting quarterback, Brady led the Michigan Wolverines to a 20-5 record. He helped them win the 1999 Citrus Bowl against Arkansas and the 2000 Orange Bowl against college football powerhouse Alabama.
Crawford noted that despite the quarterback’s exceptional two-year stint as Michigan’s starter, he had to wait until the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft to hear his name called.
Brady’s quest to build legitimacy as an athlete commenced the day he enrolled at Michigan and didn’t end until he made it to the NFL. His struggles ceased after he displaced Drew Bledsoe as the New England Patriots starting quarterback and led the franchise to three Super Bowls in four years.
However, he was so underrated during his time at Michigan that Crawford, who spent only one year at the university, had built more notoriety than the quarterback.
Jamal Crawford was more famous than Tom Brady at Michigan
During an appearance on the Draymond Green Show, the retired guard claimed that he was more popular at the University of Michigan than Brady during their sole year together at the program. He said,
“True story. I’m not saying this to brag, I was at school with Tom Brady. I was more popular on campus than he was at that time because Drew Hansen a quarterback there, and he was gonna like the guy. So yeah, it’s it’s crazy to see up the formula. That’s crazy, I think.”
