Tom Brady’s first love wasn’t football.
The recent retiree of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had other accolades prior to his seven Super Bowl rings, five Super Bowl MVPs and NFL records in passing yards (89,214) and touchdowns (649).
Brady, 45, was a multi-sport athlete from a young age, and this included playing America’s pastime. He made a good run at the sport as a left-handed hitting catcher at Junípero Serra High School.
Pete Jensen, Brady’s high school baseball coach in San Mateo, Calif. told ABC Action News that he thought it was “his best sport.”
Brady was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 18th round of the 1995 Major League Baseball Draft.
This now makes Brady the last active professional athlete to be drafted by the Expos. The seven-time Super Bowl champion retired from the NFL “for good” on Wednesday morning, saying goodbye to the sport he played professionally for 23 years in an emotional video on the beach.
Before Brady, Ian Desmond was drafted in 2004 by the Expos but didn’t play for them, making his MLB debut in 2009 with the Washington Nationals — after the franchise relocated from Montreal to D.C.
“I never had as much fun scouting a player that we eventually didn’t sign.” John Hughes, the Expos scout who drafted Brady, told the Hartford Courant in 2019.
“He was drafted in the 18th round because everyone knew how difficult it would be to sign him. He was very talented. I mean on talent alone he would have been projected a late second-round pick.”
Hughes said he believes Brady would have made it in the league as a catcher, with his athleticism and strong throwing arm.
However, Brady was not as optimistic that he would have made it in the big leagues.
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“I’d be selling insurance, man. Baseball was not my sport,” Brady previously told the “Dan Patrick Show.”
