Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes could go down as two of the greatest football players ever. But if they’d wanted, there was another sport out there waiting for them.
Both Brady and Mahomes played baseball growing up. Mahomes, of course, is the son of former big-leaguer Pat Mahomes, but Brady could get things done on the baseball diamond, too. In fact, both Brady and Mahomes were taken in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft years before they were chosen in the NFL Draft.
The NFL is surely grateful that Brady and Mahomes both chose football, because it’s given the league one of the best quarterback matchups in Super Bowl history on Feb. 7, 2021. But when you see Brady or Mahomes find a tricky arm slot to complete a throw or slide with great mechanics after a scramble, there’s a baseball background to point to, a reason they’ve got an extra skill here or there really nailed down.
Tom Brady’s baseball career
To those who remember Brady dropping a pass in the Super Bowl against the Eagles, don’t laugh: He was a catcher in high school. Brady played two varsity seasons and hit .311 with eight home runs for Junipero Serra in California.
According to MLB.com, the left-handed hitting Brady had prodigious power. He once hit a home run off the team bus that woke his bus driver up, and in a pre-draft workout at Seattle’s Kingdome, he apparently hit a home run with a wooden bat while still in high school.
Brady was taken in the 1995 MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos in the 18th round as the 507th overall selection. His commitment to play football at Michigan surely knocked him down the draft board some, and Brady wouldn’t play any more baseball after high school.
