Tales of Tom Brady at 40 (espn article)
Tom Brady turns 40 years young in a couple of hours. Everyone's favorite sports website here, espn, posted some cool Tom Brady tales told by his various friends , teammates, and coaches that you may not have heard before, that I thought were too good to not share here . It's a great read as there's plenty of him from his days at UofM.
Here's one of them.
Jay Flannelly, close friend from Michigan:
"We played intramural basketball together, and there was one day the frat boys were giving Tom a hard time about Drew Henson. Tom was taking it. I kept going over to him, asking, 'You OK?' So the game is almost over, about a minute left, and we were up by about 30 points. He comes over to me and asks how many fouls he has. You're allowed four and Tom had two at the time. So he says to me, 'Beav, next time we're inbounding the ball, I'm going to throw it to you and just run up the court and don't look behind you. Just sprint.' So Tommy inbounds the ball to me, I run up the court and I hear this awful noise behind me. Tom set a screen, like Charles Oakley, that took out one of the guys who had been on him all game about Drew Henson. It literally knocked the kid into never-never land. I always talked to him after that about how he was the quarterback enforcer; it would have been like Wayne Gretzky beating up a goon, or when Larry Bird went up to Bill Laimbeer."
August 2nd, 2017 at 10:24 PM ^
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
Minus leaving his preggo GF for Gisele you mean ?
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^
before she told him
August 2nd, 2017 at 10:29 PM ^
Did he?
Or was he merely repeating what the (overwhelming) majority believed/wanted at the time?
I wonder what percentage of MGoBlog's current population was hoping/praying Drew Henson would be the starter in 1999.
Too bad the internet (and MGoBlog) didn't exist in its current form back then so we can't check. I can count on the ridges of one finger the number of people who now sheepishly admit to formerly being Team Henson.
But the Henson/Brady episode is why I keep warning the anti-Speight crowd to just be patient and see how things play out...
QB development was poor-to-nonexistent under Hoke. In my eyes, I saw 2015 (year 1 of Harbaugh) as Speight's unofficial redshirt season. Let's see how Speight does in year 3.
against Syracuse, opening day at home in Sep. 1998 & expectations were high for obvious reasons.
But yes, it sounds like the kid at the basketball game was being a jackass & got what he deserved.
First two games, actually - ND and Syracuse.
is that Syracuse had a 4th-year QB named Donovan McNabb.
August 4th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
Yeah, but our offense sucked that day. We scored a couple of garbage-time TDs to make the final score (38-28) vaguely respectable.
once, but to keep it up the whole game is just being a dick. He got what he deserved.
In regard to QB development, I won't argue the Hoke point. However, was it really great under Carr or just OK? Brady did well his last couple years, but really struggled in some games. And obviously he was nothing like the QB he became for the Patriots. And Chad Henne (IMO) didn't really get much better in his 4 years here and won no championships. Navarre got better clearly by his last season, but he started out so poorly he had nowhere to go but up. Henson had so much talent he didn't need much development. Anyway, under Harbaugh I think we'll see the best QB development any of us have seen at Michigan.
I believe every starting QB under Carr made the NFL, so yeah, his development was pretty good.
Brady's junior year was just average, but he had a superb senior year.
I was on team Henson at the beginning, the way he threw the ball was so impressive. But the vast majority of games when they were splitting time, Brady moved the ball so much better. When people ask me about watching Brady @ Michigan, it is pretty embarassing to say that I liked this other QB, that most casual fans have never heard of. I still wonder if Henson would have been more successful if he went the Mauer route and just concentrated on one sport.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:05 PM ^
I do not mind admitting that I was totally wrong about Tom Brady. I thought Brady was just another Todd Collins type QB (tall, immobile, good arm but nothing special). My expectation was he was a place holder that Henson would quickly surpass. Yeah ... no.
With Speight, I trust this coaching staff completely. I believe they will play the QB they believe gives the team the best chance to win. I was a little surprised when O'Korn did not win the job in camp last year. Then l I saw him play later in the year. Mystery solved. If Peters wins the job, it will be because he improved past Speight. I am just rooting for the best QB whoever that is.
Player development is what I loved most about this coaching staff. Just about every contributor has shown significant improvement the past two seasons. Sometimes baby steps. Sometimes huge leaps. That is just with Hoke holdovers. The future is bright
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:18 AM ^
I'm not that guy (though I bet he is on here somewhere. No, maybe mLive.).
HOWEVA
as a buffalo bills fan, I know EXACTLY how he feels.
August 2nd, 2017 at 10:37 PM ^
It would be interesting if years from now if someone were to ask TB who helped his QB development the most, was it a) Lloyd and his staff or b) Belichick's and if he could give us an honest answer without worrying about hurting either coach's feelings?
What we have here is a case of the GOAT qb who has to fight tooth and nail to get playing time in college against another qb who never made it in the pros and ends up almost a forgotten 6th round pick. However, when TB gets to the pros, he starts to set the world on fire AND that being done early in his career as opposed to some backups who start out by holding a clipboard for 3 - 4 years.
August 2nd, 2017 at 10:47 PM ^
August 2nd, 2017 at 11:05 PM ^
August 2nd, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
Not saying that's the case here, but could be a legitimate answer.
August 2nd, 2017 at 11:29 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
August 2nd, 2017 at 11:55 PM ^
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:20 AM ^
That's some Sparty quality time there, DrJaws
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:35 AM ^
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:42 AM ^
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:58 AM ^
Never talked to him, but I heard a lot of the same. Had a class right next to his one year and saw him coming and going a lot.
I never fully understood all of the Henson hype to be honest. I think if Carr keeps in Brady against MSU on the road in 1999, we win that game. I was at that game. My cousin's husband and his brother instantly said we lose when Henson came back out for the second half.
In that game Brady was 30 for 41, 285 yards and no interceptions. Henson was 6 for 12, 111 yards and 1 interception.
Those stats don't show how bad Henson played though as he had an 81 yard TD strike....take away that one play and he was 5 of 11 for 30 yards and he had drives where he scrambled wildly and didn't throw it away and took a loss --> 5 carried for -19 yards..
http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/100999aaa.html
I agree that Brady should have played over Henson and that Carr was wrong in his approach. Still, if Henson had played football full time he would have had a long NFL career rather than a couple cups of coffee. That, and the fact that Michigan would have competed for a National Championship rather than being without a QB when he left for the Yankees.
Who would you guys trade on the team for Tom Brady to be our QB this year.
Great Charlie Weis story. Was never a fan of that guy, but if Tom likes him then OK.
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:05 AM ^
I'd love to see one of these about Harbaugh. There are enough crazy anecdotes out there about him that I can't imagine what we would find out.
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:05 AM ^
I'd love to see one of these about Harbaugh. There are enough crazy anecdotes out there about him that I can't imagine what we would find out.
The two guys are wired so similarly (although Brady is GQ while Harbs is more of a tank commander) that I would not be surprised if someday Brady is the head coach at Michigan.
is that Charlie Weis' story about Tom Brady is mostly about Charlie Weis. Maybe it's 50/50. Charlie just can't help himself. I remember when he treated Twitter like a blog. Why use 100 words when you can use 500?
Loved the stories overall though. Tom is super competitive but also a good teammate. If he wanted to coach he'd be really good it, not sure he needs the headaches. I remember hearing his voice for the first time, probably on a WJR postgame interview, and thinking "future broadcaster." Certainly nobody but Tom himself thought then that he would be at the top of his game after 18 years in the league.