Tom Brady

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons. He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, where he was a central contributor to the franchise's dynasty from 2001 to 2019. In his final three seasons, he was a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time.

After playing college football at the University of Michigan, Brady was selected 199th overall by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, later earning him a reputation as the NFL's biggest draft steal. He became the starting quarterback during his second season, which saw the Patriots win their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVI. As the team's primary starter for 18 seasons, Brady led the Patriots to 17 division titles (including 11 consecutive from 2009 to 2019), 13 AFC Championship Games (including eight consecutive from 2011 to 2018), nine Super Bowl appearances, and six Super Bowl titles, all NFL records for a player and franchise.

He joined the Buccaneers in 2020 and won Super Bowl LV, extending his individual records to ten Super Bowl appearances and seven victories. Beginning in 2024, Brady will be the lead color commentator for NFL on Fox. Brady holds nearly every major quarterback record, including most career passing yards, completions, touchdown passes, and games started. 

He is the NFL leader in career quarterback wins, regular season wins, quarterback playoff wins, and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, as well as being the only Super Bowl MVP for two franchises. Brady's accolades include the most Pro Bowl selections and the first unanimous NFL MVP. The only quarterback to win a Super Bowl in three separate decades, Brady is also noted for the longevity of his success. 

He is the oldest NFL MVP at age 40, the oldest Super Bowl MVP at age 43, and the oldest quarterback selected to the Pro Bowl at age 44. Brady is the only NFL quarterback named to two all-decade teams (the 2000s and 2010s) and was unanimously named to the 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born in San Mateo, California, on August 3, 1977, the only son and fourth child of Galynn Patricia (née Johnson) and Thomas Brady Sr. Brady were raised as a Catholic. His father is of Irish descent, while his mother has Swedish, Norwegian, German, and Polish ancestry. Two of Brady's great-great-grandparents on his father's side, John and Bridget Brady, were Irish refugees from the Great Famine who moved to San Francisco from Boston before the American Civil War. 

They were accompanied by Bridget's sister Ann and her husband, Lawrence Meegan, the parents of the 19th-century American Major League Baseball player "Steady" Pete Meegan. Brady's great-uncle Michael Buckley Jr. was the first American prisoner of war in World War II. In the 1980s, Brady regularly attended San Francisco 49ers games at Candlestick Park, where he was a fan of quarterback Joe Montana; Brady called Montana his idol and one of his inspirations.

At age four, Brady attended the 1981 NFC Championship against the Dallas Cowboys, in which Montana threw The Catch to Dwight Clark. As a child, Brady attended football camp at the College of San Mateo, where he was taught to throw the football by camp counselor and future NFL/AFL quarterback Tony Graziani. Despite the rivalry between the two teams, Brady grew up as a Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics fan.

Brady attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, where he graduated in 1995. He played football, basketball, and baseball in high school. He played against Bellarmine College Preparatory rival Pat Burrell in both football and baseball. Brady began his football career as the backup quarterback on the Padres junior varsity team. At first, Brady was not good enough to start on the 0–8 Junior Varsity team, which had not scored a touchdown all year. 

Brady ascended to the starting position when the starting quarterback was injured. He became the varsity starter in his junior year and held the position until he graduated. By Brady's senior year, he was striving to be noticed by college coaches. He created highlight tapes and sent them to schools he considered attending. This led to strong interest from many football programs around the nation.

The process of recruiting was much different during Brady's time when athletes' rankings were not as prominent. In terms of recruiting in the 2000s, Brady would have been considered a three or four-star recruit. In essence, he was a highly-rated prospect. Brady was also on Blue Chip Illustrated and a Prep Football Report All-American selection. After his recruiting process, he narrowed his list to five schools. "Probably the ones that we did hear from and ultimately pared the list to were Cal–Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Michigan, and Illinois,” his father said.