Tom Brady was far from a “wow” prospect during his college days with the Michigan Wolverines. Heading into the 2000 NFL Draft, Mel Kiper Jr. had him rated as a fifth-round pick. He ended up going even lower than that come D-Day, in the sixth round. However, we all know he eventually turned into the GOAT of quarterbacks.
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That said, Brady’s trajectory could have been entirely different if his head hadn’t been set straight. It turns out there was a time when he was so frustrated with football in college that he considered walking away from Michigan altogether. According to Seth Wickersham, TB12 once felt so buried on the depth chart that he seriously thought about transferring to Cal.
It took advice from a world-renowned counselor to get him back on track.
“When he was at Michigan and he was buried on the depth chart, he was a whiner. He went to this counselor named Greg Harden, who died a year ago. Great, great guy. He said, ‘My dad tells me I should transfer to Cal. I’m going to transfer, I’m buried here on the depth chart.’ Think of all of the responses that one could give to Tom Brady in that moment,” Wickersham started on the Glue Guys Podcast.
It’s hard to believe, but Brady was indeed considering moving back closer to home and going to school in Berkeley. It would’ve been just a 40-minute drive from his hometown of San Mateo. But it also would’ve been the easy, comfortable, and safe way out for him.
That’s why his counselor, Greg Harden, didn’t mince his words when advising Brady.
“Harden started laughing, and he goes, ‘You want to leave? Go ahead. You haven’t done sh*t here anyway. No one is going to care if you leave.’ And I think that presence in someone’s life really ignited a competitive spirit in him,” Wickersham said.
Brady ended up staying at Michigan, and after sitting for his first two seasons, he started the final 25 games of his college career. He threw 30 touchdowns and 16 interceptions during that span. Brady also led the team to big-game victories in the Citrus Bowl and the Orange Bowl in 1998 and ’99.
How Harden instilled his philosophy in Brady
As you probably deduced, Harden had a sort of “tough love” philosophy when it came to mentoring Brady. He realized that the young version of him had a weaker mindset that was willing to fold more often than not. So, he instilled his philosophy in Brady, which transformed him into TB12.
“If you make it your mindset, your vision of who you are, that you’re going to make it a habit to give 100 percent, 100 percent of the time, in everything you do—if you make that your norm, your base level, your default mode—then on your absolutely worst day, even when you slip, you’re still going to be better than the average person on their best day,” Harden wrote on Men’s Health.
Sadly, Harden passed last year due to complications with surgery. During his career, he impacted the careers of Brady, Desmond Howard, Jalen Rose, and Michael Phelps. All were devastated to learn about his passing.
But it goes to show that legends and GOATs aren’t born with a destiny to succeed. They’re regular people who go through mental struggles just like everyday citizens. Most of them need professional help to get their thoughts in order and motivate themselves. That’s exactly what happened between Brady and Harden in the ’90s.
