If you grew up in the 20th or 21st century, odds are that there are unflattering photos of you floating around on the internet somewhere. For Tom Brady, however, that photo has become a meme that tends to make the rounds on social media every time the NFL Draft and Combine events start to pop up.
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“I thought I looked good in the picture at the time,” Brady sulked as he was forced to reflect on the image for the umpteenth time. The former face of the New England Patriots recently sat down with the members of the Dude Perfect podcast to discuss, amongst various things, the least athletic periods of his life.
“That wasn’t the finest moment of my life,” he admitted. Brady jokingly noted that he did pushups just before the photo was taken, but even then, he had still hoped that it would only be exchanged between league personnel who were opting on a need-to-know basis.
“That was the pre-Internet era, where you thought that was for NFL scouts. And now, literally anyone who has an NFL feed around April, that picture comes up, and I want to kill the NFL social media manager,” he said with a smile.
When asked if he could point to a particular moment in life where he didn’t necessarily feel very athletic, Brady honestly admitted, “I don’t know.” Of course, that was likely more a result of the audacity of youth, more so than anything else. “Maybe I was pretty naive over a period of my life.”
In regard to which sport he is the worst at, the seven-time Super Bowl champion kept things short and simple. “100-yard dash. Track and field.” Seeing as Brady only averaged 1.6 yards per carry on his 693 career carries, that one definitely checks out.
Thankfully, he was able to turn that embarrassing photograph into a point of inspiration for future athletes. If there was ever a single picture that best depicted an American underdog, it’s the one of a pudgy Tom Brady, standing in his underwear, just hoping for an opportunity so that he doesn’t have to be an insurance salesman.
Considering that the Patriots were ultimately able to get six Lombardi trophies and a slew of AFC Championships out of him, it’s safe to say that they don’t regret their decision to give him that chance. Nowadays, both parties are content with being household names in the world of sports, while their partnership has been immortalized in bronze with a 12-foot-tall statue of Brady himself now resting outside of Gillette Stadium.
