Overlooked By 31 Teams, Tom Brady Defines Resilience

When asked to describe Tom Brady, words such as GOAT, leader, and role model come to mind. Brady has achieved more in the past two decades than many other athletes combined. However, what most people don’t realize is that it took a tremendous amount of hard work, self-discipline, and resilience for Tom to get where he is today. Where would Brady be if he wasn’t mentally, emotionally, and physically resilient?

In 1999, Brady played for the University of Michigan football team and after an unimpressive season was expected to be drafted in the second or third round. Every single NFL team passed up on drafting Brady and not just in the first three rounds of the draft, but multiple times. The New England Patriots finally added him to the bottom of their roster, making Tom the 199th pick of the 2000 draft on April 16th. During his rookie season with the Patriots, Brady worked hard as the fourth-string quarterback and after injuries and incidents on the roster, he worked his way up to become the starting quarterback in his second season. That same year he led the Patriots to their first Super Bowl championship, While enduring a knee injury from the previous week, Tom became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl and earned his first of many Super Bowl MVP awards.

Brady led the Patriots to 17 division titles, 13 AFC Championship games, nine Super Bowl appearances, and six Super Bowl titles. In 2020, He joined the Buccaneers and led the team to win Super Bowl LV, extending his individual record to 10 Super Bowl appearances and seven Super Bowl victories. Tom Brady holds more awards and has broken more records than we have room on this web page to list. From game starts to wins, and yardage, touchdowns, the list is simply astonishing.

Tom attributes his success to his work ethic, competitive spirit, the support he receives from his family, coaches, and teammates, and to his pliability & resilience. After his first Super Bowl victory, Brady could have easily coasted for a few years and eventually retired after 5 years with the NFL. Instead, Brady worked hard and eventually became known as the greatest quarterback of all time (GOAT). From unwanted to unbelievable, that’s the value of resilience.

About Resilience Inc.

Resilience Inc. provides Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum to improve mental and emotional strength, resilience, and intelligence. We believe SEL to be a key factor in addressing the core cause of multiple problems, including a decline in academic performance, bullying, school shootings, drug use, a lack of motivation, domestic violence, a lack of empathy, social unrest, and a number of other issues.

SEL provides individuals with self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, goal setting, and effective decision-making skills, motivation, empathy, and many other life skills.

For more information about how to increase your own resilience, or to implement a program at your school, church, after-care program, or in your home, fill out the form below.