CONTENTS

CONTINUE: PART 2

The Michigan Years

"You can learn a lot about a quarterback here. This is a place of pressure, a place of war-like competition, a place of ferocious trash-talk, a place where the bright-green battle surface is populated by hulking football players who will do absolutely anything to win." – Nicholas J. Cotsonika

PREFACE

It’s the two century old fable of the ugly duckling…a literal prophecy if not for all the feathers.

Today it’s just too easy to admire Tom Brady. By documenting his early years, I hope to restore clarity to an often muddled tale about an athlete who’s still taken for granted by his own fans.

He’s never been featured in one of those fuzzy television pieces with bad piano, but his story was nearly sadder than a disability case...it was about having all the ability in the world, but suffering from the scheming and ignorance of authority. But of course his isn’t a sad story, it’s a highly inspirational one.

Looking back at Michigan, it’s clear his success has nothing whatsoever to do with coincidence. For all the accolades, we often forget that 90% of the system actively tried to keep him down. He’s not merely prevailed, but risen to a level – in his prime – where he’s already been the ceremonial coin flipper at a Super Bowl.

There wasn’t anything conspiratorial about his early career -- the carnage was carried out in plain view on the biggest stage in college football. But rather than lose his wits, he got stronger. But some scars never heal. There have been fierce competitors on the big stage, but none more so than Brady…and before the book is finished, he might just go down as the greatest there ever was.

Still, the unprecedented success begs an unanswered question…

Too slow and skinny they all said. “God, you can see his ribs,” said one scout. “Virtually immobile, can’t run worth a lick,” chimed another…”he’s got big knobs on his shoulders.” Another described him as “fragile.”

Come on. You’re telling me the NFL said “no” to a great quarterback 198 times because he wasn’t pretty and didn’t run fast? What was Marino’s 40-time? Anyone? Where were the cries about “mobility problems in the NFL?” How about Unitas’ 40-time, or Luckman’s? Does anyone at the Hall of Fame have a picture of Otto Graham with his shirt off? Does anyone care what he “looked like?” WHEN DID COMMON SENSE GO OUT THE WINDOW?...was it around the time Mel Kiper arrived?, or shortly thereafter?

There’s no doubt Tom stood to benefit from an NFL training regimen, but that’s something you could work with. It didn’t change the positives: tall, accurate passer with a great arm, leader, durable, wildly successful at a major college program, and a rare flair for winning nearly every close game he played. I mean, stick that guy in a weight room and you had something to work with…right?

There had to be more to getting pushed off the cliff in the talent sweepstakes of 2000.

The arrows all point back to Michigan...

PART 1

''Let me look at him on film. Tell me what his teammates think of him, what his coaches think of him. Coaches can have a selfish reason for liking guys, or not liking guys.  Take Joe Montana - Dan Devine hated him.  Now there's a classic example of a guy - a third-round pick, Joe Montana.  Yeah, right. Came out of Notre Dame, didn't play, but they kept sticking him in games that they were losing like, 35-7, and he would end up winning it, 37-35, you know?  There is something a little special about a guy like that.'' - Joe Theismann (2001)

When Bill Belichick told Tom Brady in February of 2002, “I’m glad you’re our quarterback,” it must’ve meant far more than Bill realized. Back then Tom was hardly accustomed to being accepted in the spotlight.

Indirectly, George Steinbrenner played a major role in dropping his draft stock and nearly ruining his football dreams.

Today, fans fondly refer to Brady as a "Michigan Man" and talk of “The Next Tom Brady,” but that's not how it used to be.  In 1998, "The Golden Child" went by a different name -- Drew Henson. Henson’s football aspirations were certainly squashed by Steinbrenner, but that’s a different story.

It was less an athletic saga than a political quagmire.

In a poll conducted in 2005 of the top-100 Wolverine football players of all-time, Brady ranked 67^th. And yet had he started a 3^rd season (which strictly based on talent he deserved), he was on pace to smash all of the school’s career passing records.

In 125 years of Wolverine football -- although few still accept it -- he was the most spectacular passer and leader they ever had. Maize-and-Blue lore is littered with notable field generals: Norcross, Kipke, Friedman, Newman, Elliott, Leach...but once this generation dies out, the Trinity will become Heston, Harmon and Brady.

But none of that changes the past. Here’s what the politics undoubtedly cost him: a national championship (or two), a Heisman and a place in the College Football Hall of Fame…and yet he’s simply moved on to “bigger and better things...”

He was wiry, thin-necked Tommy Brady -- a grubbier and grungier version of the machine he’s become.  He'd take chances that maybe he wouldn't -- or wouldn't have to -- today.  There's nothing more boring on this planet than watching him play with a lead...but at Michigan he had to fight from behind on a weekly basis…scratching and clawing for his job, his future, and his pride. Eventually he turned the critics into believers, but Henson was always standing in the shadows waiting to pounce on the first 3-and-out.

He became known as “the comeback kid.”  The engineer of 4th-quarter comebacks in a third of his starts...several of the miraculous variety, including both of his Bowl wins.  His largest comeback attempt -- against the Spartans in '99 -- failed because he'd been mysteriously benched for two quarters and ran out of time.

In the two seasons he started, Michigan posted a 20-5 record (2-0 bowls).  In that brief span he still finished 4^th in career passing yardage.  He owns eight school records, including consecutive games with a touchdown (12), and consecutive games with 200+ yards passing (15).  He still holds or ties single-game records for completions, attempts and touchdowns (2^nd in total yards).  He also finished 2^nd in eight other categories (including yards per game).  Only Grbac had thrown more touchdowns in a season -- and most of Tom's starts were 3-quarter affairs.  Most impressively, in each of his 16 Big Ten games, he had at least one touchdown (and in '99, he threw at least two TDs in 7/8 conference games).

And if you wanted a cannon, nobody threw it deep better.  The dink and dunk reputation garnered with the anemic 2001 Patriots couldn't have been further from his college persona when he slung the ball to Tai Streets, Marcus Knight and David Terrell.  In 98/99 he had 82 passes of 20+ yards, and 15 TDs of 20+ yards.  His 7.5 career yards per attempt exceeds his current NFL career mark of 7.1 (still excellent). The pro scouts, Mel Kiper included, didn’t like his arm strength – but they just weren’t looking past his build.

UM’s fortunes have always been tied to the running game and Lloyd Carr was the ultimate traditionalist – he never truly took the cork off the bottle until Tom’s final game.  Despite the run-run-pass-punt mentality, Terrell and Knight still became the all-time leading receiver tandem in school history in 1999 with 1,837 yards (shattering the 1994 mark set by Amani Toomer and Mercury Hayes). Along with Drew Brees, Tom helped spark a passing revolution in the Big Ten. Of course Michigan was much slower to evolve than Purdue, but Tom finally broke the mold of the ultra-conservative Wolverine quarterback.

Still, nobody noticed.

He didn't run the option like Ricky Leach, and unlike Harbaugh -- who flat out rifled the ball into orbit -- Brady was relatively effortless with the deep ball -- it seemed to float with wings of its own.  But all of the great traits he brought to the NFL were in place and blossoming at Michigan.

Perhaps the biggest misconception is that he "inherited a national championship team."  The reality is that the great '97 squad (which many have argued he deserved to quarterback) was built on chemistry.  The '98 and '99 squads were also riddled with injuries and inconsistency.  What he did inherit was the pressure to repeat and one of the most disastrous QB controversies in college history. Coming off the national championship, there was a clear sense of complacency. As soon as the quarterback tampering subsided and Tom assumed command of the team, their intensity came roaring back and they became contenders again…but by then it was too-little too-late.

Throughout the Henson ordeal, the players responded to Tom’s magnetic confidence. But equally important was his physical toughness on the field. The absolute fearless way he faced and endured shots that guys with sturdier builds couldn’t withstand. He was never in awe of a situation, and never bullied by a blitz. As hard as he gets hit in the NFL, he was absolutely fork-lifted in college...but he'd scrape himself up, spit out the dirt, and go right back to work undaunted.  The guys loved him for it.  In the darkest days – and there were many – he set the example…if Tom could take all that abuse, so could they.

He was a high school sophomore when Drew Bledsoe was the #1 pick in the draft by the Patriots. Scribbled in his high school yearbook were the words, ''If you want to play with the big boys, 'you gotta learn to play in the tall grass''...only he knew the true significance of the "tall grass," but you get the picture.

He was the best catcher in the history of his high school. Tom’s dad had actually been drafted by the Phillies, but when it came down to it, Junior’s heart was set on Michigan and a shot at the NFL. Longtime Rangers’ personnel man Rick Schroeder, who also scouted Barry Bonds and Randy Johnson, told Tom’s parents they were “crazy” to let him pass up on baseball. Tom’s baseball coach (who also had Bonds at Serra High) summed up his talents this way,

"He's the best catch-and-throw guy I've ever had and he had a .311 average. I'm one of the few high school coaches who lets the catcher call his own game, and Tom was better than all of them at that. He ran the game.

Sometimes there'd be 15 scouts watching him. The only problem I ever had with Tom, is that once in a while I just had to grab him and calm him down. He was so competitive, so intense, that he was always hard on himself. He was a field leader.

He was the perfect, prototype catcher for the major leagues. He was strong, could throw, was a left-handed hitter. He'd have been a big-league catcher for 15 years.''

The game that stands out was the playoff showdown against archrivals Bellarmine Prep of San Jose.  Tom hit two home runs in a 3-1 win.  The first homer tied the game, the second put them ahead, and in between they intentionally walked him.  Defensively, he also threw out a runner and applied a saving tag at home plate.  One of his home runs carried over the school bus that was parked “well beyond the right-field fence.”  That game got the scouts talking.

After deciding to go to Michigan, most MLB teams crossed him off their boards, but in 1995 the Expos still took a flier in the 18th round hoping they could convince him to sign a deal in the minors. Dave Littlefield, now GM of the Pirates, was with the Expos at the time,

“The makeup to this kid was just off the chart.  He had the physical talent, but he was (also) smart, he hustled; we investigated how much it would take to sign him, and we did talk about a significant amount of money...but the family just felt so inclined for the kid to go to school that we never got down to the hardcore negotiating.”

Littlefield remembers two things about his visit to BP, one, he hit home runs, and two, "He came into the clubhouse afterwards, and we were impressed with how he interacted with the big-league players, which is saying a lot for a high school player." As an insurance policy they ended up drafting Michael Barrett and Brian Schneider, who’d go on to become the team's catching tandem. Both Barrett and Schneider have gone on to become mainstays in the NL.

At least initially, Tom wasn't as highly recognized by football scouts.  The highlights of his portfolio included:

• National Recruiting Advisor: #10 pro-style QB in the nation.
• Prep Football Report: #6 pro-style QB in the nation, All-American, #26 prospect in the West.
• Blue Chip Illustrated: #6 QB in the West, All-American.
• Super Prep: #65 prospect in the Far West.
• U.S. National Bluechips Magazine: highest rating of 10.5.

Believe it or not, he started out as a linebacker (he was still a bit chubby in his early teens), but that experiment ended when it became obvious he was a natural quarterback. Though the team was often beat up -- losing by 60 and 40 points in a couple games -- the leadership was already in place. His running back Steve Loerke said, “He just had a unique way of controlling the huddle. He wasn't undermining at all, and you can still see that today.”

His first coach, Tom MacKenzie helped sow the seeds,

"He got the chance to play quarterback his sophomore year when the starter was injured. After his sophomore season I told him that he had a great arm and had the potential to play in college, but needed to work on his mobility. Let me tell you, this is a man that can make a commitment. He was willing to give up some things like going out with friends to make himself better. He has always had that work ethic."

Mike Reiley recruited him for a year at USC but when two other QBs committed before signing day USC ran out of scholarships.  Reiley later faced off against Brady as the HC of the Chargers in 2001 (Tom scored twice in the final ten minutes to tie the game and then won it in overtime).

The Golden Bears at Berkeley offered him a golden path.  As his dad put it,

"Cal told him that he could start as a sophomore, junior and senior, and Michigan said, 'We already have six quarterbacks.' My choice for him would have been Cal. It was right down the street, and one of his older sisters had gone there. But it would have been handed to him. He just felt that this is what he wanted."

In his final year as a Wolverines’ assistant coach, former defensive lineman William “Billy” Harris helped bring Tom to Ann Arbor. And he arrived without any of the hype or fanfare that it takes to secure the starting job for four years…just being good enough is irrelevant at a major program – it’s always political. The same ambition that attracted him to Michigan -- "to play in the tall grass" -- almost drove him away when the situation became more about seniority and name recognition than God-given ability.

But Michigan IS college football...it's football period. Chicago and Ann Arbor bridged the Ivies with places like Notre Dame. Chicago hasn’t had a football program since Stagg, and the Ivies haven’t been competitive in a century. Going into 1995, only Yale (779) had more football victories than Michigan (747). It’s the last competitive giant from the dawn of the 20^th century.

Michigan’s also an American showcase -- 22 of the 25 games Tom started were nationally televised -- 14 on the three major networks.

But back in ’95, there were no indications that Michigan was about to win a national championship. The undeniable allure of the winged-helmet had begun to collect dust.

Gary Moeller, the original heir to Schembechler’s throne, was fired going into the season and defensive coordinator Lloyd Carr took over the program.

Michigan opened in 1995 without a quarterback who had started a single game at the collegiate level.  But Tom was red-shirted, and sat 4^th on the depth chart (as he’d started high school and later would as a pro), behind Brian Griese, Scott Dreisbach, and 5^th-year senior Jason Carr (Lloyd’s son)...but near the end of the season he'd entered a battle for the starting job.

Tom’s first quantum leap occurred between the 1995 and 1996 seasons.

1996

“Even when he was 3^rd-string at Michigan players were drawn to him…which is why the Patriots are so good.” – Jay Feely

The 1996 media guide contained bios for fifteen “key players” -- none of them were quarterbacks.

But Tom made huge strides learning the playbook and managed to secure the backup spot.  When Dreisbach suffered an injury in ’95, Griese took over as a sophomore and struggled. He continued to struggle in spring practices before he was suspended for throwing a chair through the window of a local bar. That opened the door for Dreisbach to again take over.

Scott was the scrambler with the strong arm and Brian and Tom were the slow guys with adequate arms…at least that was the blanket perception. But many felt Brian was a better “fit” for the team than Scott -- smarter and tougher under pressure.

When recently asked whether he allows his quarterbacks to take hits in practice, Lloyd Carr gave an interesting response,

"We never hit the quarterbacks here. Well, we did one time. When Brady was a freshman; we used to hit him. And you really would like to do that, but at that time when Tom was in the spring of his freshman year, we had four other quarterbacks. Those situations are better when they’re young. But usually it's just not worth the risk."

By the end of the season Brian and Tom were neck and neck for the backup spot…and both were sincerely close to transferring.

His first action came in mop up duty against UCLA.  Under a heavy blitz, his first career pass was intercepted by linebacker Phillip Ward for a 42-yard touchdown return...a memorable experience for all the wrong reasons.  He felt unprepared because he wasn't getting practice snaps, and that throw didn't help earn any more snaps, but he still felt he was better than Dreisbach.

He was sharp in a late-October relief appearance against the Gophers.  The Michigan Daily's Nicholas Cotsonika wrote,

Dreisbach looks like an option quarterback without options.  He rolls out, taking several precious seconds to find a receiver, and when he finds one, he either throws too late or too high.  Dropping back and firing never seems to happen.

In fact, when freshman Tom Brady and junior Brian Griese rotated at quarterback at the end of the game, both looked sharper than Dreisbach.  Brady dropped back and rifled six- and seven-yard passes to Aaron Shea, and both were quicker than anything Dreisbach had thrown.

It’s common knowledge that he went into Carr's office at one point and basically said, "play me or else." Had he transferred to Cal his competition would've been Justin Vedder, Samuel Clemons, Wesley Dalton and Ryan Tollner...a virtual slam dunk.  But Carr pushed the right buttons…he stayed…and it hardened him -- made him even more determined, even if he’d needed therapy to get through it.

Just prior to his first Super Bowl, he recounted the confrontation with Carr,

I was behind a few guys who were great players, I was 2500 miles from home and 19 years old, and it got to a point where I thought I should've been playin' and the coach thought otherwise. I went in and told coach that maybe Michigan wasn't the place for me. I thought maybe there was another place.

And his advice was, 'Don't worry about the guys you're competing against, worry about you being the best player you can be.' And that's where I learned to compete. From that day on, my attitude completely changed.

I stopped worrying about the receivers' routes and the weather. I worried about my five-step drops and how I could make my reads quicker. You focus on preparing yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and that carries over to the other players. They respect you for that. They understand, 'hey I may not have run a perfect curl route, but you still threw me the ball and completed it.' That changed my attitude about competition and sports. I got sick of worrying about other people.

At the same time, Brian was at his wits-end and was preparing to leave before the 1997 season…a move that would’ve opened the door for Tom.

After a 7-1 start had Michigan climbing into the top-10, the team lost back to back against Purdue and Penn State. In the game of the year against #2 ranked Ohio State, Carr had Scott on a short leash. After failing to score in the 1^st half and falling behind nine, Dreisbach sat out the 2^nd half with a mysteriously “hyperextended throwing elbow.” The reality was that Carr yanked him and didn’t want to embarrass the kid. It also covered Carr in case Brian went out and did even worse. But instead Brian sparked the offense to 13 points and the victory on a late game winning drive. It was a monumental victory -- one of the great upsets in school history.

The die had been cast -- it would be Brian’s championship run in 1997, not Tom’s.

Despite the fact that Scott had started the entire season, Carr decided to give Brian the start in the Outback Bowl against Alabama, based largely on the Ohio State game. However the switch didn’t translate into success when the Tide won the game on an interception return for a touchdown (14-7). Brian was back in the mix, but there were still a lot of questions for the spring.

The Daily set the stage,

"The last thing I want to do is start a quarterback controversy," Carr said, "But I have to do what's fair for the guys involved."  With Dreisbach's job security now uncertain, it is probable Carr will face a four-way quarterback controversy.

Although Griese has a year of eligibility remaining, he will graduate in May and is undecided whether he will return. If he does, he will be in excellent shape to compete with Dreisbach, a sophomore.

Freshman Jason Kapsner and sophomore Tom Brady are also contenders.  Some feel the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Kapsner will win the job outright, no matter what happens. Despite his redshirt status, he traveled to every road game this season.

And Carr is still high on Brady, who he says has limitless potential.  Brady has been widely rumored to be transferring, but he has not confirmed interest in anything but making it crowded at quarterback for Michigan.

Only one thing seems certain: the uncertainty may be taxing.  "I can't go through another season like the one I just went through," Griese said after the game, when asked whether he will return.

1997

"The fact that he stuck in there says something about his character. He could have gone back to San Mateo and cried.” – Gil Brandt (2000 Combine)

Tom spent the summers at Michigan working in the Pro Shop at the school golf course. 2-3 shifts a week, answering phones for unlimited golf privileges. Griese had the same gig, so did Kapsner who was a frequent playing partner. He and Kapsner interned at Merrill Lynch -- more time spent on the phones.

By all accounts, he played well enough to earn the starting job in time for the national title run, but Carr again deferred to the more senior option.

Of course nobody expected Michigan to win it all that year. As Lee Corso infamously put it, "Michigan has no chance to have a great season. They play too many good teams that are as good or better than they are, and a lot of them are away from home."

The phenomenal defense was led by all-timer Charles Woodson, who probably could’ve entered the QB competition if he wasn’t busy doing everything else on the field. Woodson became the only defensive player to ever win the Heisman Trophy.  Not since ancient history had they fielded a team as strong from top to bottom.

Two things kept him in Ann Arbor that season.  First, he was in line to inherit a championship-caliber team in '98 – so he thought -- and second, Carr was giving him snaps in games (three of the first four) as Michigan was dominating its opponents. Lloyd was shrewd enough to know that he’d need Tom in 1998, so he hung a carrot out there…a tactic he’d take to another level in the very near future. He acquitted himself well in those appearances -- albeit in garbage time.  Perhaps more importantly, he was earning more practice time with the first-team.

When Michigan dominated Colorado to start the season, he was able to go in for a series against a top-10 team. Against Indiana he came out and went 6/8 for 59 yards.  For the most part however, he watched from the bench as the team he knew he could lead was going on a remarkable run. He took each appearance as an audition, and at a certain level they were, but they were also mere tokens.

In the middle of the season, he got a scare when his appendix burst in the middle of the night.  According to The Daily,

"He got up at four in the morning and went to the hospital, but he went to the main entrance, and they were closed," Carr said. "So Brady went back home."  Later in the day, after a brutal night of sleep, he went to practice, and as the pain lingered, he wound up back at the hospital for an appendectomy. But miraculously, Scott Dreisbach recovered from a season-long wrist injury on his throwing hand just in time to fill in as Griese's backup for Saturday's game.

Leave it to TB to wait for the hospital to "open" (he'd just turned 20).  If it wasn’t his brightest moment, it did indicate a high tolerance for pain.

While recovering in the hospital, he determined to stop feeling sorry for himself and win the starting job.  Scott had trouble being the #3 guy after starting in '96 and he'd exaggerated the extent of his wrist injury to protect his pride while Tom was sitting behind Brian on the depth chart.

Heading into November, the team was undefeated and racing up the polls to the #1 ranking.  With Tom suddenly out of the picture "indefinitely," Scott squeezed into the backup role.  But just three weeks after the surgery, he somehow managed a relief appearance against #3 ranked Penn State. As UM rolled over the Lions, Tom came out for the last five minutes of the game. The stat sheet showed just seven hand-offs and a sack, but the message was clear -- if Brian were to fall with an injury, he wouldn’t let a missing appendix steal his opportunity...but it never came to pass.

Prior to his first Super Bowl, the pundits couldn’t explain why he was slotted to start the game on a sprained ankle, if they only knew he’d taken sacks against Penn State three weeks after emergency surgery.

Nowadays it’s odd to watch a tape of that Rose Bowl with Tom on the sidelines, clipboard in hand, as Brian played the lead role -- the long hair a reminder of the conflict with the Michigan machine.  He knew the bar had been set high and he was itching to step in and prove his worth.

As strong as his ambition was, 1997 had been a valuable learning experience -- Brian was a good friend and mentor and he heeded Carr's advice to shore up his attitude and deal with "the stuff he could control." It was a gut check worthy of a starting quarterback.

He was about to get the keys, but things would change.  A new recruit who'd already committed was about to complicate the situation dramatically.

1998

"When Tom shakes your hand, he grabs it hard and looks in your eyes. Just with his handshake, he says, 'This is my team.'" - Athletic Director Tom Goss (‘98)

Expectations were sky high going into '98. Tom fought off Scott (now a 5th-year senior), mammoth sophomore Jason Kapsner, and a hotshot freshman phenom -- the nationally heralded Drew Henson. In the key April open-practice, 25,000 showed up to see how the quarterback duel would play out, and Tom put on a show that helped make him the frontrunner...

The brightest star of the afternoon was the man who arguably had most eyes on him. Tom Brady started and didn't disappoint, outshining Dreisbach.  On his very first play from scrimmage, Brady hit wide receiver Tai Streets with an 85-yard touchdown strike. "I've been working on just about everything right now," Tom said. "I still need to improve a lot to be at that championship level Brian was at this point last year."

He went 12/22 for 244 and 2 TDs, and his performance won some backers on campus and gave Carr something tangible to take to the boosters and people holding the purse strings who were already beginning to apply pressure to groom Henson as “the guy.”  Even with the national championship under his belt, Lloyd Carr was not exactly Bo Schembechler in terms of his influence within the university.

With the school on hand to witness his swaggering performance, Tom likely propelled himself into the starting job.  Afterwards Carr said, "Tom had an excellent spring. Scott was not as effective today, but all of our receivers were split up. Our quarterback situation is strong. Last year Tom threw the ball very well, especially the deep ball. He has developed a command of the offense as well as the confidence of his team."

We'll never know exactly how much pressure was on Carr to play Henson as a freshman, but it was surely miles from the level it would reach in 1999.

The Ann Arbor News prophetically quoted Tom suggesting he didn’t yet feel secure, "As Coach Carr says, you could be at the top of the depth chart one day and at the bottom the next. You've got to stay tough out there and compete, or you'll lose your job."

Unlike Griese and Brady -- who fought like heck to get to the top -- Drew Henson came in as a superstar from Brighton High -- a 15-minute ride up US-23 from Ann Arbor.  He was the #2 prep quarterback in the country and signed with Carr before his junior year on the condition that he wouldn't draft any other quarterbacks in 1997 or 1998…a moratorium first proposed by Bobby Bowden, which Michigan then had to match. It was an example of Bowden creating a win-win for Florida State -- if they lost Henson, which had to be the expectation, at least they could raise the stakes for the competition.

In turn, Henson helped recruit David Terrell and Marquise Walker who would become key receivers -- Terrell in particular. The fact that he was very active in recruiting is a key piece of the puzzle.  But an even bigger issue was Henson’s $4M deal with the Yankees to play third base in the farm system – an unprecedented deal for a guy without any major league experience.

While Tom had been a very good baseball prospect, nobody was on Henson’s level. A right handed shortstop/pitcher, Henson broke the national home run record as a junior, and set state records for career home runs, grand slams, RBIs, runs, hits, doubles and walks, AND had a 96 mph fastball....and if that wasn’t enough he also had the leading scoring average on his basketball team.

Henson’s high school mailbox was full with requests for his autograph. ESPN came out for a practice and S.I. was praising him as the next best thing in any sport he chose.  Drew Henson was HUGE…and the hype he got in Michigan was off the charts.  He called it a dream to play in the Big House, "You never quite get used to running out of the tunnel and touching the banner."

Henson cuts baseball deal

Brighton's 3-sport star will be part-Yankee, part-Wolverine

Detroit Free Press

July 24, 1998

Contract terms were not immediately released, but it is known that Henson agreed to a two-tiered signing bonus -- $2 million up front and an additional $2.5 million or more once his U-M football career ends.

Reached at his home in Connecticut, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman would not confirm that a deal had been completed but said the parties were "very close and optimistic that everything would be done Friday." "He's a special player, no doubt," Cashman said. "He has a bright future if he chooses the path of baseball, like we hope he will."

On Thursday, Drew and Dan Henson hammered out the contract with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and vice president Mark Newman. "Mr. Steinbrenner is a very smart man," Dan Henson said. "He's not going to put that kind of money into something that's a fluke."

But he still intends to check into a dormitory in three weeks and do battle for the quarterback job at Michigan. Until then, Henson will commute between Ann Arbor and Tampa, splitting time with football workouts and the instructional baseball of the Gulf Coast League.

He had personal workouts with the Tigers at Tiger Stadium and the Diamondbacks in Arizona, thrilling team officials both times. As his idol, John Elway, did at Stanford, Henson plans to play in the Yankees' system and college football at the same time.

In workouts on campus, Henson has been impressive but lags behind starter Tom Brady and backup Scott Dreisbach. Coach Lloyd Carr, who could not be reached for comment, has been concerned that the attention Henson has received could be detrimental to his development.

By contrast, Tom was just a skinny punk from the Bay area, and as far as anyone in Ann Arbor was concerned, there was no controversy – it was simply destiny. 

But that sentiment was not necessarily shared by the players themselves. The Daily added,

Players said they'd be shocked if Henson started.  "Henson isn't going to be anywhere near the field," said Brian Griese. "They said the same things about Brady and Kapsner when they came in. It's impossible."

Although Griese said he and other players told Dreisbach he "will play a lot" this season, QBs coach Parrish said, "My gut says I'm not in favor of platooning, because it's not fair to the team."

Griese battled through significant adversity before he became the starter last season, including a suspension from spring practice in 1996 for breaking a bar window.  He spent that fall as Dreisbach's backup.  Parrish said those tough times matured Griese and, combined with the experience of starting eight games in 1995, gave him "mannerisms, poise and calmness you don't see very often.”  Brady is the most likely to mimic Griese, sharing a similar style and having spent four years in the program.

A returning member of the offense said a closed door for Henson could be considered a slight, and it could be used as a bargaining tool to lure Henson into professional baseball. Also, Parrish said, "[Lloyd] likes to put pressure" on his quarterbacks during the off-season.

There was a part of Tom that looked up to Brian as a guy who had been there ahead of him…he picked up some of Brian's practice habits. He always had his antenna up, always listening, taking mental notes of the smallest details. He’d see how Brian carried himself, how he interacted with different players and the media, how he dealt with outside pressure, how he studied film, etc.

He'd paid his dues for three years, done everything Lloyd Carr and the school had asked of him, and watched the team win a championship with Brian at the helm...but now there was a high school kid threatening to keep him on the clipboard.

At least initially, Henson wasn’t as good as advertised...but with potential came the need for grooming.  However it went beyond inexperience. Henson just didn’t have the skills to read a defense like Brady could, and his flashy athletic feats were more style than substance.  But there would come a day when Carr would need Henson just like he needed Brady.

Tom had already seen Carr play the same game with Brian and Scott.  As he later reflected, "Both of those guys were very tough competitors. It was my freshman year that Scott got the start. I know how disappointed Brian was. I learned a lot from that. He always stayed into it. It's just a learning experience that if you go through at a young time in your career, it makes you better."

Publicly at least, he welcomed the competition...but it was hell. He went on answering the same questions every day, and he’d always give the same reply, "You don’t gain a starting job at the University of Michigan by default, you’ve got to work your butt off.”

Recently he was more candid, "I was so nervous to go out to practice because I was competing every day. I swear to God, I would lose sleep...I'd wake up and check the weather to see how windy it was going to be. I approached every day in practice like it really was the game."  The anxiety came more from wanting to prove himself rather than from a fear of failure.

In between such sobering competition, he hadn’t lost his sense of humor. When new recruit David Terrell came into the fold it was clear that humility wasn’t one of the wide receivers strongest characteristics. So he was quickly broken in. In his first week he got a call from Tom and Aaron Shea -- claiming to be reporters from The Brighton Bee. They claimed they were interested in discussing Terrell’s chances of winning the Heisman and a national championship as a freshman. According to Shea, “[Terrell] kept putting us on hold. We were like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ To this day, he doesn’t know it was me and Tom."

After attending a wedding that summer, he stopped off in South Bend on his way back to Ann Arbor. Notre Dame was the first game on the schedule and he figured it was a good opportunity to get acclimated to the place. When he arrived at the Stadium, there was an open gate so he went right in. But after looking around for a while he discovered the gate had been locked. “It was getting dark and I was starting to freak out. There was a 15 foot drop if you climbed over the wall.” He started to imagine the story on ESPN’s SportsCenter – “Wolverines’ QB Caught Stranded in Deserted Notre Dame Stadium.” After being trapped for a couple hours, he broke into a maintenance room, knocked an extension ladder off the wall with a sledgehammer, and climbed out a window. If that didn’t stir the echoes, nothing would.

Despite Tom’s advance scouting efforts, as the week of the game drew near Carr had still not announced a starter.

Then, just eight days prior to opening against the Irish, two things happened at once…

Coach Carr held a now infamous press conference in which he named Tom the starter, but when the questions came back to Henson, Carr elaborated,

"He has gotten better almost daily. He's picked up the offense well. Drew is without question the most talented quarterback I've been around.  He's going to play some this year because he's not just 'another guy.'  I knew he was a good athlete, but he is really even quicker and better on the move than I thought he'd be.  He's a guy who can make plays when the defense breaks down.  If you get pressure and he has to scramble, he can do that.  He really adds a lot of mobility to that position."

Lloyd Carr is not a stupid man. But it’s unlikely his comments were designed to provoke quite the reaction they did. By describing Henson as “more talented” than Tom, he dumped another bucket of fuel onto the already boiling controversy.  When asked how he made the decision, he added,

"I think it goes back to the fact that Drew Henson has been here two weeks and Tom Brady's been here three years. Drew has adjusted well and players have accepted him well. But being a quarterback in the Big Ten is a process, even for a guy like Drew. Tom knows the offense. He's a talented guy. Tom Brady is a fighter, he's a competitor, so I don't sell him short at all.  He's paid his dues and worked extremely hard.  He has desire, determination and intelligence. He has a good arm and he has the respect of his teammates.  I'm anxious to see Tom play.  He's got all the right stuff."

In S.I., Tim Leyden brilliantly set up the season,

Michigan's first national championship in 50 years was the product of great motivation and spectacular team chemistry, both of which will be very difficult to re-create…

This just in: Michigan was not the most talented team in the nation last fall. The national champion Wolverines were a collection of good players -- and one great one, Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson -- who grew tired of hearing that their program had fallen into mediocrity after four straight four-loss seasons. Embracing the tired old concepts of teamwork and camaraderie, they blossomed into a monster unit that won the school's first national title in 50 years. Michigan therefore became a buzzword in football offices around the country, as in "we're looking to establish great chemistry this year, like Michigan had last year," which is what LSU coach Gerry DiNardo said this summer.

A year ago Schembechler Hall was a wellspring of motivational gadgets, from the row of ice axes, each inscribed with the name of a beaten opponent, that lined the floor of coach Lloyd Carr's office (emblematic of his "climbing Everest" metaphor) to the fresh rose -- as in Bowl -- that lay in a box in the defensive meeting room, where players could gaze upon it. Even now the serendipitousness of the season amazes the man who plotted its turns. "If my daughter hadn't given me Into Thin Air for Father's Day," Carr says, "that whole theme would never have happened." Yet as quickly as other teams sought to replicate Michigan's synergy, the Wolverines just as vigorously began distancing themselves from 1997.

At the outset of last season, the Wolverines were, of all things, upstarts, devoid of whatever scary mystique the Maize and Blue once held. "Everybody we played underestimated us," says fourth-year junior nosetackle Rob Renes. No more. Michigan will again get every opponent's attention and its best punch. "Everybody will be gunning for us," says senior linebacker Sam Sword. The Wolverines' total of 15 returning starters (including nine on defense) looks nice in print, but those lost include not only cornerback Woodson but also defensive end Glen Steele, the team's best pass rusher a year ago.

Woodson's departure leaves Andre Weathers at the wide corner, and Herrmann predicts that the senior will immediately be regarded as "one of the best defensive backs in the country." That means Weathers won't see many balls, and the burden of making Michigan's blitzing scheme work will fall to sophomores James Whitley and William Peterson, both of whom will play often at the short corner. Senior safety Marcus Ray will be expected to back up his prodigious woofing with Woodson-sized leadership.

Junior Tom Brady won the starting quarterback job in the spring. He's bigger than Griese and throws a prettier ball, all of which is fool's gold. Griese drove Michigan to the national title with his cojones. "I believe Tommy has that same warrior mentality," says senior running back Clarence Williams. Brady's first sports memory is of sitting in Candlestick Park as a four-year-old during the 1981 NFC Championship Game and watching Dwight Clark make the Catch on a Joe Montana pass en route to the 49ers' first NFL title. If Brady doesn't perform, he'll be spectator to many other plays, because behind him is freshman Drew Henson of Brighton, Mich., a high school All-America in two sports who in mid-July signed a five-year contract with the New York Yankees, which included a $2 million signing bonus.

In his search for the best means to defend the national crown, Carr spoke with both Bill Walsh and Bill Parcells during the off-season. Walsh told Carr that it was crucial for him to identify those members of his program who had lost their passion as a result of winning once, versus those who still had the fire. Parcells told Carr that winning a title would only make him thirst more for another. No surprise there. "We want to defend the championship," says Carr. "We won't shrink from that." Quick, somebody buy that man a book.

Notre Dame: Part I  (0-1)

"Everything I've done in life I imagined success. I expect to play the whole game and I expect to do well." - Tom

Tom’s first start arrived in South Bend.

As S.I. put it, “It's always risky to take an untested quarterback on the road to begin his career -- especially to South Bend -- and the Irish are overdue to win a big game.”

Brian Griese set the stage,

"[Tom's] big. He's smart. He's got more talent than I had. The guys know what he can do in practice, and they know what he's like off the field. The challenge is when he gets smacked in the mouth and has to get back up and play.  If he gets through that -- and I think he will -- then we'll know more about him..."

In the South Bend Tribune, Curt Rallo added,

Tom Brady carried a clipboard on the sidelines for the Michigan Wolverines last season. This season, he’ll be carrying the weight of the Michigan football world on his shoulders. 

Brady has a different look to match his different role. The hair is cropped short, more of a marine recruit look than the left-coast surfer dude look that the San Mateo, Calif., native sported last season.  The attention is focused and the game face is on.  Any doubts or anxieties have been knocked aside, the pressure met head-on.  He had a look of steel-eyed determination Monday as he faced the media.

Although Brady will undergo a baptism of fire against a Notre Dame team that hopes to make a name for itself against the Wolverines, he has already faced the heat in the Wolverines' pre-season camp. "Every Michigan fan in the country expects a national championship this season. Any loss would be disastrous."

They lost, and it was indeed disastrous. In fact, they were blown out. The defense allowed 280 total rushing yards, including 162 from Autry Denson.

With so many holdovers from the championship team still on board, there was a clear sense of complacency in the season opener. Any thoughts of Michigan being able to simply “show up” and win were painfully squashed.

Tom was the one bright spot. He dominated the first half, "marching them down the field consistently,” leading four solid drives resulting in two missed field goals and two good kicks to knot the score at 6-6. But they just couldn't run the ball inside the red zone.

On the first drive of the game, he went 6/7 for 45 yards (including two 3rd-down conversions). Michigan took the lead on a 7-play drive when a 42-yard pass helped set up a Jay Feely field goal.

Then came the moment when Tom assumed the mantle – “Tom Brady, Wolverines quarterback”…

With the game tied and 3:08 left in the half, he responded with the first touchdown drive of his career -- 12 plays, 72 yards (59 passing) -- culminating on his own 1-yard leap to take a 13-6 lead into halftime.

At one point in the first half, OC Mike DeBord pulled out a 3rd-down short-yardage option play with Dreisbach, who came in for two snaps and fumbled right away.  Then perhaps trying to prove that he too could run, Tom went on a mad 17-yard scramble -- not bad for an apparent tortoise...however, Henson would later erase that memory with a 17-yarder of his own (albeit against a prevent defense by that point).

Things looked good at halftime but the third quarter soon became a disaster.  On two Wolverine fumbles and a blocked FG, the Irish strung together five unanswered scores that throttled the score to 36-13.  One of the fumbles came on a kick return as the offense looked on from the sideline.  On the drive t