Is Tom Brady the Greatest Underdog Of All-Time?
Remembering Brady’s first Super Bowl and, “a skinny little twerp out of Michigan.”
Each week while Man in the Arena airs on ESPN+, we’ll dedicate these Friday newsletters to examining the latest episode of the series, trying to understand what each of Tom Brady’s Super Bowl seasons can teach us about the nature of competition. First up: Brady’s unlikely 2001 championship.
It is almost impossible to remember Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl as it truly was from the vantage point we have today, two decades and so many wins, records, and championships later. It's simply too daunting to recall the unlikeliness of all that followed. Today, Brady is inevitable. He’s everywhere. He’s synonymous with greatness.
So, to think of Tom Brady as an underdog?
Something about it just seems a little ridiculous.
In the first episode of our new series Man in the Arena, out now on ESPN+, we retrace the story of Brady’s first Super Bowl, which was anything but inevitable. As hard as it is to believe today, that championship just might be the greatest underdog tale in the history of sports.
Let me explain. In 2001, Brady was an unknown sixth round pick who could perhaps most deftly be described in the words of the Patriots’ $100-million man and starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe. Brady was, according to Bledsoe, “just a skinny little twerp out of Michigan.” The Brady who entered the game after Bledsoe took a thunderous hit in the second game of the season was slow, chubby, and living with two roommates (of all the revelations from episode 1, the image of Brady sitting around with roommates was the most amusing to me and...well, my roommate).
“I just strapped my chin strap on, got a little loose, and then got the ball on the last drive of the game,” remembered Brady. A newspaper headline the next day read, “Backup QB Brady thrown into the fray.”
For so many, that’s where the Brady legend begins, just like that. When his story is viewed with that starting point, it’s easy to see why his name is often uttered alongside Goliath’s. It’s as if the PA Announcer, at that exact moment in the game in 2001, proclaimed: Please welcome to the field, your new quarterback ,the greatest football player of all-time. The rest of the story falls like dominoes from there.
But the story didn’t begin there. Not even close. It started at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, California, when Brady was the backup quarterback for the JV football team. It continued in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when Brady was seventh on the depth chart and consulted a sports psychologist about wanting to give up on the Michigan Wolverines. Then, it led him to Foxboro where he got stronger, studied the playbook, and peppered Bledsoe with questions.
“There was very little expectation that I had. People didn't even know who I was," Brady said of that first game in 2001. “And it was really about just playing football—and there was a purity in that. I think the work that I did in 2000, 2001, where I could gain the trust of the coaches, my teammates, where I could build some confidence in myself — when I got the moment, I felt like: 'OK, I'm ready.’”
A little later in the episode, Brady clarifies himself. “I don’t think I was physically prepared,” he says. “Was I mentally and emotionally ready? Absolutely.”
It’s that second part—the mental and emotional game—that led Brady to the Super Bowl that year. Sports are so often thought of as simply a physical battle, and yes, physicality will always be tied to sports. But we don’t watch for simple feats of strength. We watch for the moments that transcend talent. Tom Brady is the epitome of this fundamental truth about sports. Nothing about his career was destined way back when. He was never the fastest, strongest, or hardest throwing.
But he’s the GOAT. And once upon a time, he was an underdog, just waiting for his chance.
Now Streaming: Man In The Arena Podcast
In addition to the docuseries, we’re also producing a Man in the Arena podcast, in which Gotham Chopra explores two decades of Brady’s career through the eyes of the fans and haters, those inside and outside of the arena. Each episode grapples with the ways in which Brady has altered our understanding of sports. In episode one, Gotham explores the Brady origin story. Was Brady replacing Bledsoe fate? What would have happened if Bledsoe had never been injured? With help from former coaches Rex Ryan and Herm Edwards, along with other journalists, Gotham sets out to find an answer.
So Let It Be Written...
Canada Proudly Waving the Flag Is Pure Joy for Players, Team's Long-Suffering Supporters
By Chris Jones • CBC
There are few recent moments in sports more full of joy than the Canadian Men’s National Team’s victory this week over Mexico in snowy Edmonton at a venue nicknamed “Estadio Iceteca.” Watch Sam Adekugbe dive into a snowbank after the second goal. Then read the great Chris Jones capture the moment perfectly.
Ryan Smith Has a Pitch
By McKay Coppins • Deseret News
Can a basketball team change the perception of a state? Ryan Smith, the Qualtrics co-founder and new owner of the Utah Jazz, thinks so. “It’s the biggest media platform in the state outside of the church,” says Smith’s wife Ashley. And what do the Smiths want to do with that platform? “We want people to be more curious about Utah because … the people are accepting and loving and unified,” says Ashley. “We want that story to get out.”
Curl Austin’s Bet: If You Freeze It, They Will Come
By Patrick Michaels • Texas Monthly
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to the new curling capital of the world…
...Texas?
@dierdre_wolownick_honnold
Free Solo's Alex Honnold Isn't the Only Record Breaker in his Family
In our 2017 episode of Religion of Sports “Hold Fast,” the Dean of USC’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, Varun Soni, explained, “The mountain represents transformation. People go up the mountain to learn about what it means to be divine, and they come back down the mountain understanding what it means to be human.”
For Dierdre Wolownick, climbing a mountain also helped her feel closer to her son.
See, Wolowinick’s child can be a little hard to reach. That’s because her son—the mountain climber of Free Solo fame, Alex Honnold—is typically jet setting around the world scaling ever more dangerous peaks. But back in 2008, Honnold was injured, a blessing in disguise for Wolowinick since Honnold had more time grounded at home. While they spent time together, Honnold persuaded his mother to go to a climbing gym. Soon, she was trekking up mountains, too, even though she didn’t start the sport until she was 58.
Now, she’s 70 and still climbing. In fact, she’s retracing her son’s famous footsteps. This September, Wolowinick climbed El Capitan, the same mountain that Honnold conquered in his famous documentary. When she reached the summit, she became the oldest woman to ever climb the Yosemite peak, breaking her own record by four years.
At her home office, she displays a homemade sign written in French. “Vouloir, c’est pouvoir,” it says.
Translation: “To want something, is to be able to do it.”
Tom Pennington / Getty Images
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
You better believe it’s already ski season. And you’ll be hearing a lot more from Italian skier Sofia Goggia, pictured here, very soon. The 2018 gold medalist will look to defend her medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics, which begin on February 4 in Beijing. Until then, she’ll get training runs like this in at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado.
So Let It Be Written...
The Ultimate Teammate (2005)
By Charles P. Pierce • Sports Illustrated
While awarding Brady the 2005 Sportsman of the Year Award, the great Charles P. Pierce begins with an aside on Plato. What, he ponders, would the Greek philosopher have thought of the NFL? And what would he have made of Tom Brady? What follows is a thrilling—and revelatory—piece that only Pierce could have pulled off.
Last Word
“I remember I was eating breakfast in Ann Arbor after a game one day my senior year, and my parents were in there with me...and I said, ‘One day, I’m going to be a household name.’ And I said it as a joke, but now I look back f---in’ 23 years later, and I go, ‘F---in’ household name!’”
– Tom Brady