Tom Brady is one of the most successful athletes in the world. He has won seven championships and super bowls and has won four super bowl MVPs and 3 regular season MVPs. But how did Tom Brady become so successful and popular?

What a lot of people do not know about Tom Brady is that he exemplifies the characteristics of an underdog. Tom Brady was drafted late in the NFL draft of 2001 in the sixth round and was the 199th pick. All the teams thought that Brady was too skinny and unathletic compared to other athletic quarterbacks such as the first round pick, Michael Vick, who ran a 40 meter dash in 4.33 seconds.

Tom Brady’s career was not filled with sunshines and rainbows. In 2006, Brady suffered an injury that could have almost ended his career as a NFL star. Tom Brady was playing against the Kansas City Chiefs and a player who was on the ground, Bernard Pollard, lunged at Brady’s legs while the quarterback was attempting to make a throw. As a result, Brady tore his ACL and MCL. When the NFL saw this, they made a rule to prevent this from happening again: no player on the ground is allowed to lunge at the quarterback’s leg. This is how Tom Brady influenced the NFL in an indirect way.

Although Tom Brady is an amazing player, his career has not gone without scandal. The New England Patriots were accused of cheating in the 2015 Super Bowl. “Deflategate” made a lot of people question whether or not Tom Brady truly achieved what he did purely through skill. The Patriots were accused of deflating the ball in order to make it easier for Tom Brady to throw the ball farther with more accuracy and precision. This controversy caused the Patriots to lose a measly one million dollars, two draft picks, and Tom Brady to be suspended for four regular season games. This punishment, in a lot of fans’ opinions, was not severe enough. The NFL should have made a bolder statement and punished the whole team and the referees. This shifted a lot of views on Tom Brady and made him a more hated player.

Love or hate him, Tom Brady will arguably go down in NFL history as one of the greatest quarterbacks and the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) to play the game of football.