James Buckley Jr. - Who Is Tom Brady?

Thomas Brady Jr. was born August 3, 1977, in San Mateo, California. His family and friends called him Tommy.

Tommys parents, Tom Sr. and Galynn, both loved sports. His three older sisters were all top athletes. Maureen was a softball pitcher who won 111 games in high school, and would become an All-American player in college. Julie was a college soccer player. Nancy was a high-school softball star.

Tom Sr. encouraged all of his children to compete: Everything we didand I mean everything, [even] running home from churcheverything was a competition. I guess it made things really fun, at least for the winner.

As the youngest, Tommy lost a lotand he didnt like it. Once while golfing with his dad, Tommy tossed his club in anger after a bad shot. He was sent to wait in the car while his dad finished playing.

Tommy started playing baseball when he was very young, taking part in T-ball and youth league games. At first, his parents prevented him from playing football because they thought it was too rough. That was okay with Tommyfor a while.

I loved baseball, he said. The high school I went to was a good baseball school, but once I started playing football, thats when I started to love it.

As much as Tommy loved football, he didnt play very often as a freshman at Junipero Serra High School. He watched from the bench as his team lost eight of the nine games it played (the other game ended in a tie). In his second season, he became the teams quarterback because the player in that position decided to quit the team.

Tommy quickly saw that he had to put in some effort to remain the starting quarterback. He began working out even after scheduled football practices. His family would see him for dinner, but then he often left to go to a gym. After not doing well in a footwork training drill called five dots, he drew his own five dots on his garage floor so he could do the drill at home and improve. He also created a jump-rope workout that his high-school coach later taught to other Serra students.

Even as Tommy tried to outdo his athletic sisters, they were among his biggest supporters. High-school friend and teammate John Kirby remembered, After every game youd see the entire family, all his sisters, parents, and even some aunts and uncles. They really stuck together.

On the field, Tommy was starting to show the personality that would eventually help him win Super Bowls. Whenever he was in the huddle, he always seemed in control, said Kirby. He never panicked. He was always motivational, not negative.

Tommy threw thirty-three touchdown passes over his final two seasons in high school, and his team won eleven of twenty games. He was rated one of the top six quarterbacks in California. A 1994 TV interviewer said Brady was one of the names youll be hearing about for years to come. Tommy was good enough as a catcher on the Serra baseball team that he was drafted by the Montreal Expos! But Tommy decided that football would be his best path to success.

For college, he had a chance to stay near his family by going to the University of California at Berkeley. But the University of Michigan also recruited him to play. Tommy chose to make the journey to Michigan. He knew this would take him away from his close-knit family, but he wanted to prove himself at the sports top level.