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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady gave the commencement speech for this year's graduating class at the Forman School in Litchfield, Connecticut.
Tom Brady gave an excellent commencement address at the @formanschool. Awesome work. https://t.co/jquvu6UCNl
— Seth Wickersham (@SethWickersham) May 30, 2020
Brady spoke at length about the challenges facing students preparing to go to college or join the workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic.
More specifically, Brady talked about his own journey from a backup quarterback at the University of Michigan to one of the greatest signal-callers in NFL history.
Although Brady received a scholarship to play for the Wolverines, he had to compete with six other quarterbacks in his first year at Ann Arbor. As Brady noted, he redshirted in his freshman year, and his first career pass was a pick-six.
Even when Tom Brady believed he had established a hold on the starting job, another quarterback prospect entered the fray: Drew Henson.
Like Brady, Henson was a renowned two-sport athlete when he came to Michigan, and his talent made for more theater in a strange quarterback competition.
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Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr split snaps between Henson and Brady for half of the 1999 season before Brady finally earned the right to be the full-time starter.
Brady then led the Wolverines to a sensational, come-from-behind victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Orange Bowl.
Most football fans know how the rest of the story plays out.
Tom Brady was a sixth-round draft pick in 2000, but eventually emerged as the backup quarterback for the New England Patriots. He got a shot once Drew Bledsoe was injured early in the 2001 season, and promptly led the Pats to a Super Bowl victory.
Five more rings and multiple MVPs later, Brady has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest ever. But, as he told Forman students, none of it would have been possible without a dogged work ethic and intrinsic belief in oneself.
