How close was Tom Brady to being a USC Trojan?
Tom Brady said on Wednesday that he was retiring “for good” from football, ending a storied 23-year NFL career during which the star quarterback won seven Super Bowls and set numerous records.
Brady announced his decision on social media, saying he “wouldn’t change a thing” about his career.
The second installment of national signing day got me thinking.
I often wonder how close the “GOAT,” Tom Brady, was to committing to the USC Trojans instead of the Michigan Wolverines back in the 1990s.
Let’s start here: Brady was the quarterback of a 5-5 Junipero Serra High School team in San Mateo (California), but the 6-foot-4 three-star quarterback had plenty of offers despite his average team record and numbers.
In two years as a starter he finished his high school football career by completing 236 of 447 passes for 3,702 yards and 31 touchdowns.
Tom Brady was a three-sport athlete who truly excelled in baseball. His skill as a catcher and left-handed hitter led the Montreal Expos to draft Brady out of high school in 1995, but with college football offers in his pocket, he was intent on pursuing the gridiron.
Brady narrowed his choice of colleges down to five: USC, UCLA, Michigan, Cal and Illinois. Michigan can thank USC, in part, for getting Brady, because then-Trojans head coach John Robinson decided Brady wasn’t good enough to offer a scholarship after then-offensive coordinator Mike Riley, the future Oregon State and Nebraska head coach, scouted Brady and made a push to bring him to Los Angeles (Riley was the only recruiter who traveled to watch Brady in person during his senior year, his dad says).
As a starter over his junior and senior seasons at Michigan, Brady passed for 4,644 yards and 30 touchdowns to 16 interceptions while completing over 61% of his passes.
The rest is history. The New England Patriots picked Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft. He took over after an injury to starter Drew Bledsoe in 2001 and led New England to a Super Bowl victory. He went on to win six more, one coming with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Through 22 seasons, Brady was a seven-time Super Bowl champion and five-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time regular-season NFL MVP, 15-time Pro Bowler and the all-time leader in passing touchdowns, passing yards, completions and wins.
Imagine if he had been a USC Trojan. It wasn’t that far-fetched a scenario.
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