Remember When Tom Brady Almost Died Playing Pebble Beach Pro-Am?

Here’s a reminder for Tom Brady as he gets set to tee it up this weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: stay away from the cliffs.

The legendary quarterback made the cut for this weekend’s PGA Tour event. The longtime celebrity pro-am tournament is one of the Tour’s new “signature events” with a limited field and no cut. That’s tough news for a lot of celebrities who circled this week on the calendar every year for their chance to take a spin around the Pebble Beach resort alongside the world’s best golfers.

The field of amateurs will lack the star power fans have grown accustomed to seeing. Ray Romano and Bill Murray are out. Of the 80 amateurs, a lot of them are high-powered executives from the business world. Jordan Spieth, for example, is playing with Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonald’s. The “celebrities” are largely from the sports world with players past and present like Aaron Rodgers, Pau Gasol, Larry Fitzgerald and Brady in the field.

It’s not Brady’s first trip to one of the most beautiful golf locations in the world, though. Brady has played multiple times, but in 2014, he was paired up with then-Patriots coach Bill Belichick. On a podcast with Ian Rapoport in 2018, Belichick revealed how he saw Brady’s life — and perhaps his own career — flash before his eyes at Pebble Beach.

“We were on the sixth hole, which is a long par-5, and it goes up a big hill and the ocean is on the right, and the fairway kind of falls off to the right, and most of us golfers are little slicers anyways, so lot of balls end up over there — in or by the ocean,” Belichick explained to Rapoport, as transcribed by Golf Week in 2018. “So, there we are playing in a pro-am tournament, where, as an amateur, if you hit a bad shot you don’t really worry about it — you play the pro’s ball anyway. That’s what you have him for. There’s not a ton of pressure on the amateurs because you have a good player with you who probably is going to make a par on almost every hole and birdie a few.

“So Tom hit one, his second shot over (to the right), and I see a starting quarterback, a Super Bowl MVP, a league MVP, literally hanging over the side of the cliff probably 200-300 feet above the ocean trying to hit a golf ball that’s a pretty meaningless shot because the pro already is going to do better than he would on the hole. But that’s Tom. He’s very, very competitive, very focused.”

Belichick, though, couldn’t help but marvel (and maybe panic just a bit) watching Brady in action.

“I was just thinking to myself, ‘This is a crazy sight that I’m looking at here.’ … I certainly breathed a little easier when he came up for air on that one,” Belichick said.

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Belichick told the same story last year as a surprise guest on Brady’s podcast following the seven-time Super Bowl winner’s retirement.

“I can only see from about his shoulders up,” the legendary coach recalled. “Now, it’s 200 feet down into the rocks. And I’m looking at the greatest quarterback, our player, Tom Brady, standing there, literally on a goddamn ledge.”

Belichick added: “Comes pretty close to honestly dying and landing in the goddamn rocks 200 feet below. All in the name of competition and being the best he can be.

” … I was never more worried about Tom, physically, than when I saw him on that ledge, hitting the ball up to the sixth green at Pebble — with, like, a 25 (mph) wind, too, just to make it interesting.”

In hindsight, Brady agreed with Belichick’s assessment of the situation.

“I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life. That was probably right at the top of the list,” he admitted last year. “I mean, I’ve done a lot of stupid (expletive). I’m glad I didn’t pay the price for that one.”

It’s probably safe to assume Brady won’t be taking similar chances this week, but all bets are off if his competitive side comes out again.

Brady will play with New England native Keegan Bradley, a member of Boston Common Golf, in a group with former divisional rival Josh Allen.