From his infamous shirtless photo to his sluggish 5.28-second 40-yard dash, Tom Brady’s 2000 NFL Combine struggles are well-known. Aware of his limitations, he braced for a tough draft day—but nothing could prepare him for what happened next.
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On Day 2 of the draft, the Cleveland Browns selected Spergon Wynn as the 183rd pick—a real shocker for the seven-time Super Bowl winner. Why so? Because Wynn led the Bobcats to a 3-8 record while throwing for 1,646 yards and barely completing 50% of the passes in his final CFB season—relatively poor results when compared to Tom Brady.
Seeing the Browns pick Wynn ahead of him gave the GOAT a reality check. “WTF?” Brady recalled thinking. “I was better. My numbers were better. I should have gone before him.”
Seeing a player with less impressive stats get drafted ahead of him—especially after his own disappointing Combine—felt like the final nail in the coffin for him. Frustrated and overwhelmed, Tom Brady left his house with his parents to get some air and ponder over his future.
“It was too much for my panicked, insecure 22-year-old mind to handle, so my parents and I took a walk around the block to get some air. I let it all out. My mom and dad listened and consoled me. We wondered out loud, what now?”
With the NFL dream looking increasingly over, Brady wondered if training as a sales representative at a local insurance company was the way for him. But as luck would have it, the GOAT’s fortunes changed in five minutes as the Patriots rang him up and let him know that they had selected him as the 199th overall pick.
As per Brady’s latest newsletter, his draft day, especially his 199th pick, taught him a valuable lesson—look in the mirror and not at the numbers or the competition. The GOAT realized that day that none of the players drafted before him were his competition. His true rival was the man in the mirror, and the key to success is competing with oneself.
“I was competing with the guy looking back at me in the mirror every morning. That guy had a mission, and it was my job to live up to it. 199 is the hallmark for the mindset I cultivated to meet this challenge.”
In hindsight, it can be said that Brady’s draft-day scare laid the foundation for his legendary seven Super Bowl-winning career. Pick 199 wasn’t a setback—it turned out to be the ultimate motivation.
