Brady was a backup quarterback at Serra High School in San Mateo, California, on a team that did not win a game.
"Our team was terrible, but not only that, I was so terrible that I didn’t even get a chance to play,'' Brady said. "Fortunately, going into my second year, the quarterback from the previous year had retired. He wanted to play basketball because he was done with playing football, so I got an opportunity to play and I really fell in love with the sport.
“So, my journey in football started off, I would say, pretty slowly."
Brady’s eight-minute video traced his career and the adversity he faced. He challenged the Class of 2020 to remember the hurdles they had already cleared and the problems they currently face, including the coronavirus pandemic.
"You guys are going to learn that as you focus on this next chapter in your life," Brady, who signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March, said in the video. "And hopefully, you've learned incredible lessons that are going to help guide and lead you on this journey because, I'll tell you what — it's not going to be easy. There's tough competition in the real world. There's a lot of responsibilities. Your priorities are going to continue to grow and to change as you get older."
Brady ended the video by discussing priorities.
“When you make your list of priorities, and when you make decisions, make decisions that are in line with your priorities," Brady said. "So many people over the course of my career, they want to be a great player but they don’t want to make the commitment.
“For you guys, what do you want to be? And if you think about that, the answer of what you want to be and what you can be is all going to be determined by you, because your life is what you make of it."
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