Tom Brady gets emotional remembering his NFL Draft Day: “I don’t have to be an insurance salesman”

With Round 1 of 2025 NFL Draft Day set to get underway later this evening, as always, it’s going to be a nerve-racking night for the likes of Miami QB Cam Ward, Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty, Colorado Buffaloes WR/CB Travis Hunter, Crimson Tide LB Jihaad Campbell and some of the other top talents who will be finding out where they will be heading next as their NFL careers get underway.

Anxieties will be running high over the next three days with 257 total picks in this year’s draft. It’s a situation that Tom Brady remembers vividly. Now regarded as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, back in April 2000, as a 22-year-old and after three years struggling to lock down a starting place with the Wolverines, Brady awaited his fate in the draft.

Tom Brady overlooked by everyone apart from the Pats

Brady was not selected until the sixth round, eventually taken by the New England Patriots, the 199th overall. As he recalled to NFL Films in 2011, the long wait tested his nerves to the limit.

“I remember being downstairs for the fourth round and I came and gone and the fifth round, y’know, was coming and going and all these other guys were getting picked...” Brady said, his emotions getting to him as he remembered events. “And it was hard. I remember taking a walk with my dad and mom around the block... It was just a tough day, you know... I just remember being there with my mom and dad - they were just so supportive of me. And they take it as emotionally as I do. Finally, when the Patriots called I was so excited, I was like, ‘I don’t have to be an insurance salesman you know?!’”.

Brady was the seventh quarterback taken, selected 199th after Chad Pennington (18th: Round 1), Giovanni Carmazzi (65th: Round 3), Chris Redman (75th: Round 3), Tee Martin (163rd: Round 5), Marc Bulger (168th: Round 6) and Spergon Wynn (183rd: Round 6). Out of them, only Pennington (New York Jets) and Bulger (St. Louis Rams) enjoyed decent careers.

Brady played in 29 games during his college career, accumulating 4,773 yards with 30 touchdowns and 17 interceptions while completing 61.9% of his passes. Looking back, it’s incredible how so many teams missed a future legend of the game.

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