Before Tom Brady was a Patriot, he was nearly an Expo, but just how close was the greatest quarterback of all time to choosing a path to the MLB over his eventual one to the NFL? According to John Hughes, who scouted Tom, he knew "pretty much all along we were never going to sign him."
But that doesn't mean the Expos didn't pull out all of the stops to try and sway him from going to Michigan.
As part of The MMQB's "Baseball Week," the site dove into Tom's experience before and after he was drafted by Montreal, though ultimately choosing to pursue football.
Patriots fans may not want to envision a world in which Tom Brady was a name in baseball, but some of the anecdotes that came out of it are gold -- like when he was invited to work out with the Mariners. In 1995, Tom and a high school teammate, who was also invited to the workout, were changing in the clubhouse when they stumbled upon Ken Griffey Jr.'s locker, and in it was his jersey.
So Tom and his friend did as any high school seniors would do: they tried it on.
"The jersey was cool," Tom told MMQB's Tim Rohan via email. "Ken Griffey Jr. was the idol of all of us at that age."
While Ken Griffey Jr. is and was an idol for kids playing baseball, Tom had no way of knowing he would one day become a similar icon in the world of football. The Expos front office, in fact, was hoping he would become a staple in their organization, so when John brought Tom in to meet with some of the team's veterans, things didn't quite go as planned, he said.
Tom shadowed F.P. Santangelo, and though he was the team's draft pick, F.P. and his teammates, including Pedro Martinez, encouraged him to pursue football over baseball.
"We were telling him, 'Why would you make $800 a month in the minor leagues when you can be the quarterback at the University of Michigan? You're a good-looking guy, you can probably have a lot of fun off the field, too,'" F.P. told MMQB. "We told him: 'Go play football at Michigan! Are you kidding me?'"
Well, it's a good thing Tom listened. You can catch the whole story on MMQB here.
