Tom Brady

Fourteen weeks ago, Tom Brady played in his tenth Super Bowl of his twenty-one year (so far) career in American professional football.  And his team (this year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) won for the seventh time.

Tom Brady was born August 3, 1977 in San Mateo, California.  After graduating from Junipero Serra High School in 1995, he accepted a football scholarship from the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, a distance of 2,370 miles from his home.  Tom Brady and my daughter, Rachel, were classmates at Michigan for two years.

In Tom Brady's first three years at Michigan, he didn't see much playing time.  However, in 1998 and 1999 he became the starting quarterback for the Wolverines.

In the 1998 season, led by Tom Brady, Michigan had a record of 10 wins and 3 losses.  In 1999, Michigan won its first two games, against Notre Dame and Rice.  On September 18, it was scheduled to play a road game against Syracuse University.

At that time, Rachel (having graduated from Michigan in 1997) was in her third year of law school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  My son Bret was a freshman at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens.

As a Michigan fan, I wanted to go to the Syracuse game, which I could drive to with Bret.  I arranged for Rachel to fly to Syracuse from Philadelphia.

To buy the three tickets, I had to also buy three tickets for Syracuse's home game the previous Saturday against Central Michigan University.  As I had no interest in attending such game, I donated the tickets to the Oswego Little League where I played from ages 10-12 (1956-1958).

On the day of the Michigan-Syracuse game, the three of us were among more than 49,000 fans who crowded into the Carrier Dome.  The Wolverines were dressed in white, maize and blue, while Syracuse was in blue and orange. 

Michigan received the opening kickoff after which Tom Brady took the field with his offensive unit.  After a scoreless first quarter, he  was replaced as the quarterback.  

The Wolverines scored first on a 41-yard field goal.  Later, an interception led to second Michigan field goal.  

Syracuse then scored a touchdown to take a 7-6 lead.  However, in the last minute of the first half, Drew Henson, Michigan's other quarterback, threw a touchdown pass to give the Wolverines a 13-7 halftime lead.

Early in the third quarter, Syracuse tied the score at thirteen on a touchdown pass.  The extra point was missed. 

Michigan took the lead for good (15-13) when the referee called a penalty on the Syracuse quarterback while in his own end zone (resulting in a safety).  The Wolverines later added a third field goal to make the final score, Michigan 18, Syracuse 13.  

Tom Brady only played in an uneventful first quarter against Syracuse, but after a brilliant twenty-one year professional career, I'm glad we were there that day to see him play.