For all the praise Tom Brady gets for being arguably the greatest football player ever, he is undeniably terrible at one aspect of the game: running. Apparently, this wasn’t always the case.
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Everyone knows the incredible story of Tom Brady’s ascension to the very top of professional football. After a historically bad NFL combine, where he ran a 5.28 seconds 40 yard dash and had the appearance of anything but a franchise QB, Brady was drafted 199th overall by the Patriots.
Fast forward 21 years and the former Wolverine has won seven Super Bowls and cemented his legacy as the best to ever do it. However, one thing never changed: Tom Brady is still very, very slow.
In fact, it’s likely that he’s faster now as a 44 year old than he was at his combine more than two decades ago. In 2019, he actually ran a 40 yard dash in 5.17 seconds, meaning that he had somehow become quicker.
A lot of it probably comes down to his unbelievable dedication and the famed “TB12 method”. According to his high school teammate, John Kirby, Brady’s commitment to improving his speed was strong as ever even back in his teenage years.
Tom Brady Would Spray Paint Dots on His Garage to Do Speed Drills
“People have talked about his speed and how he isn’t the fastest guy, but I always thought he was pretty fast back in the day,” Kirby explained to ESPN originally. “We did something called the five-dot drill. It looks like the five that you would see when rolling dice.”
“You do all these different footwork things, back and forth, and the first time we did it, Tommy’s time wasn’t the greatest. You know the way he faces adversity; he doesn’t let anything stand in his way. So what does he do?”
“He spray-paints those dots on his garage floor so he could do it at home. His time was greatly improved by the end of the summer.”
