“They used a sun-dial to time him”: Tom Brady’s father sheds light on the quarterback’s horrific 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine
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Tom Brady
Tom Brady is the ultimate American dream for any athlete. His story almost sounds like the script of a movie you’d watch on Netflix. From being nothing to becoming the greatest, his journey was filled with humps along the way but that did not stop the quarterback from overcoming them all. Now seven Super Bowls and 3 regular season MVPs later he will go down as the greatest to ever do it.
We all know how he was the underdog at his high school, he had to fight his way to be a starter and the case was the same at the University of Michigan. When he was drafted 199 overall by the New England Patriots he was supposed to be a backup and nothing more. His hopes of starting further took a turn for the worse when Drew Bledsoe, the starting quarterback for the Past was signed to a massive long-term contract, one of the biggest for any QB at the time.
325 quarterbacks at the combine, 12 got drafted but Tom Brady is the last man standing:
However, fate had other plans for him as once Drew Bledsoe went down with an injury, and Tom took over the starter’s job, he never gave it back. The quarterback’s father spoke to KTVU Fox about his son’s mentality and he addressed his performance at the NFL Combine.
The Combine as we all know is the most important stage for all rookies entering the draft to prove themselves and show that they can walk the talk. With scouts and even coaches from all 32 NFL teams, it is the opportunity of a lifetime for these athletes who come from all walks of life. How a player performs at the combine usually determines his draft stock.
Brady had one of the worst combine performances in history. His iconic combine picture makes him look like an average skinny person you’d come across on the street. Nothing about him screams NFL quarterback.
His father also agreed that Brady’s performance was so bad, especially in the 40-yard dash which is the highlighting event that he himself couldn’t believe it. “When he ran at the combine, there had been something like 325 quarterbacks that had run the 40-yard dash, when he ran the 40-yard dash, he was the first quarterback that they used a sun-dial to time him.” Brady Sr. wasn’t lying, TB12 ran the 40-yard dash in 5.28 seconds.
The average 40-yard dash timing for an NFL quarterback is 4.9 seconds. Tom was clearly never the athlete and you could see that when he ran. This led a lot of teams to overlook him and not take him seriously. Sure, he did fine in the throwing drills but in the Combine, those do not really matter as much.
He still turned out to be the best quarterback in that draft. 325 quarterbacks showed up at the combine out of which only twelve got drafted that year, Tom was the seventh QB and all those 6 players who got selected ahead of him did not last long. All of them were out of the NFL for 3-4 years.
It’s 2022, and Tom is still standing, he’s not just standing, he’s performing at the highest level. He is a testament to the fact that no matter how much talent you have or the hype you have around you, at the end of the day only hard work will take you to the next level and keep you there. There is a reason he is called the greatest ever and well-deservedly so.
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Sumedh Joshi
(2245 Articles Published)