Tom Brady is renowned for his competitive edge — an edge that apparently is not limited to his play on the football field.
Longtime friend Jay Flannelly, who worked as a student assistant during Brady’s time at Michigan, recently explained to the Providence Journal’s Mark Daniels how a college quarterback controversy involving Brady and Drew Henson led the future New England Patriots star to take out his anger on the intramural basketball court.
From the Providence Journal:
Flannelly was the last player on the bench for a team full of football players, Brady included. The game started to get physical and Brady was in the crosshairs of the opposition — members of a Michigan frat house.
“You suck,” they shouted as he run up the court.
“You’ll never be the quarterback here,” another said.
“They were giving Tom a hard time about Drew Henson,” Flannelly said. “Tom just took it. He said nothing, but you could tell he was getting pissed off. He comes over to me with a minute left in the game. I was playing point guard and he said, ‘Beav, next time I inbound you the ball, I want you to take it and sprint up the court.’”
Brady inbounded the ball and Flannelly sprinted up the court like directed. As he neared halfcourt, he heard a loud thud. Then there was silence.
“Tom set a really hard screen on the kid that was telling him Drew Henson was a lot better than him,” Flannelly said. “This kid was like looking for his face on the ground. Tom just lit this kid up and laid him out.”
The chirping Brady heard in college had nothing on the hate that has been thrown his way this offseason, when fans and media members alike publicly branded him a cheater for his alleged involvement in Deflategate.
A federal judge last week, however, nullified the four-game suspension Brady was slapped with as a result of the scandal, and Flannelly now expects the quarterback to give the rest of the NFL the same treatment he gave that Michigan frat bro.
“He uses negatives and turns them into positives,” Flannelly told Daniels. “Tom Brady by himself is bad. A pissed-off Tom Brady is really, really bad. You know who it’s going to be bad for? The 11 defenders every week who have to play against him and the defensive coordinator on the other team. They’re all going to pay for this. You think he’s a cheater? We’ll find out.
“You guys have no idea what you have done to this guy and what he’s going to do to you and this league this year. It’s going to be ugly, with a capital U.”
Thumbnail photo via Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports Images
