“Was a Tough Day”: Tearful Tom Brady Once Explained How His Parents Helped Him Through a Miserable NFL Draft Day

The New England Patriots made one of the best decisions in their football history 24 years ago. New England needed players who would flip the tables with their talent. In 1999, the team lost six of its final eight games and fired head coach Pete Carroll. Instead of him, they hired Bill Belichick, who helped the team make the biggest move in NFL Draft history by drafting Tom Brady in the sixth round.

Although the team drafted the seven-time Super Bowl champion as their 199th overall pick, he turned out to be a blessing. Despite Brady being relieved about getting selected for the league, he could not ignore how painful the day of drafting was for him.

Tom Brady shared the painful details of the most difficult day of his life

Surprisingly, the NFL GOAT was not drafted in the first or second round of the NFL draft. In his successful 23-year career, the former Patriots and Bucs QB earned numerous accolades, which are almost impossible to achieve. But Brady, surprisingly, was not considered one of the brightest prospects when he was drafted. New England drafted him as their 199th overall pick in round six of the 2000 NFL draft.

Tampa Tom was a compensatory pick. His parents supported him, as he was not selected in the earlier rounds of the draft. His parents supported him on his heartbreaking journey.

“It was hard. I remember taking a walk with my dad and mom around the block,” he said while trying to hold back tears. “It was just a tough day; you know, I just remember being there with my mom and dad.”

Why was the star quarterback neglected in the NFL Draft?

As mentioned before, the Patriots were in a mess. Drafting a signal caller who would have a strong mental makeup was their requirement, and Brady, who possessed that quality, was already on the team’s radar.

But few teams turned away from the future Hall of Famer because, in his high school career, the HC of Michigan refused to name Brady as the QB1 in his senior year after serving as the starting QB in his junior year. Additionally, he showed up to the NFL Draft Combine looking unathletic. Six quarterbacks were drafted ahead of Brady in the 2000 NFL Draft. Brady started doubting and thought that he would have to become an insurance salesman.

As per ex-Pats executive Scott Pioli, “Every round, we’re looking at Brady,” Pioli had said. “When it got to the sixth round — we had the [draft] board stacked vertically [with columns moving left to right] — by the time we got to the sixth round, Brady is all the way over to the left by himself, and we said ‘what are we doing?’ … everyone liked Brady … so we took him.”

Needless to say, that one major call taken by Bill around two and a half decades ago, changed football forever.