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The college football landscape has been described as the wild west in recent years as athletes have earned sums of money off of their names, images and likenesses as well as been able to use the transfer portal to find the best schools that fit their needs.
Tom Brady admitted in a conversation with FOX Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt that he was happy he didn’t have to deal with some of the things that college football players are dealing with today while at Michigan.
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Tom Brady appears at American Dream for the grand opening of Card Vault by Tom Brady, a sports card and memorabilia retailer, East Rutherford, Friday, Apr. 11, 2025. (Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
He suggested that players aren’t necessarily better off because of NIL and the frequent use of the transfer portal and put the onus on the athletes’ parents to instill resilience in them at a young age.
“They’re young. They don’t have life experience,” Brady said on “Big Noon Conversations.” “It should be the parents. Be a good parent. Teach your kid the right values. What’s going to sustain them in their careers over a period of time? Whether it’s football or whether it’s business or whether it’s teaching or law school or medical school or a trade, whatever you want to do, you’re going to have to go through hard things in your life. You’re going to have to make tough choices. The value isn’t always about the last dollar.
“So I think all these things that are happening in college sports, we’re prioritizing the wrong things. We’re valuing the wrong things. I’m not saying it’s not important. It’s one of 10 things that are important, and certainly to me, it’s not the most important. So when kids do go through that the right way, they’re actually learning the right values. When you have the right values in life, that’s going to sustain you as you move on through the rest of your life.”
Michigan Wolverines quarterback Tom Brady (10) in action against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium. Ohio St. defeated Michigan 31-16. (USA TODAY Sports)
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Brady wondered whether athletes in college football will be able to learn “those sustainable traits that I think are invaluable to their life and life experience” and disagreed that money was the only thing that had value in college.
He expressed some gratitude for having a challenging time while at Michigan. Brady wasn’t thrown into the fire as a starter right away. Instead, he rode the bench for two seasons before he became a starter for the Wolverines in the 1998 season.
“My college experience was very challenging. It was very competitive. Those traits transformed my life as a professional. I was ready to compete against anybody, because the competition in college toughened me up so much that I had a self-belief and self-confidence in myself that whatever I faced, I could overcome that,” he said.
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Michigan QB Tom Brady (10) in action vs Wisconsin, Madison, WI. (John Biever/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
“I think if we take that away from a young student athlete, to say, ‘You know what, I know it’s tough to compete, but what we’re going to do before you have to compete. We’re actually going to put you somewhere else so that you don’t have to compete.’ That is absolutely the wrong thing to do to a young child.”
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