“I wrote an essay in high school that said, one day they’re going to be known as Tom Brady’s sisters,” said Tom Brady himself about his sisters. After all, his three sisters were better athletes than him in his childhood days. But as the NFL days started, Brady’s career began with him buried on the Patriots‘ depth chart in 2000. Fourth-string behind Drew Bledsoe, John Friesz, and Michael Bishop. That rookie season saw him attempt just three passes. Yet through relentless work and preparation, he transformed himself into the most accomplished QB in NFL history with seven Super Bowl wins. Well, behind every great athlete are the influences that shaped them. For Brady, that included his competitive sisters who pushed him and his protective mother, who initially kept him from playing football. Oh, yes, and an unexpected baseball idol from his high school days. 

Tom Brady stood in Las Vegas’ new Hall of Excellence, his seven Super Bowl rings shining beside Jackie Robinson‘s bat and Muhammad Ali‘s gloves. The greatest QB ever could have talked about trophies. Instead, he shared something more personal. With broadcaster Jim Gray beside him, Brady opened up about his early years.

He told stories that few fans had ever heard – about the people who shaped him before the championships came. One of them was baseball legend Barry Bonds, who had earlier walked the same high school halls as Brady (Junípero Serra in San Mateo). “My mom didn’t let me play football till I was a high school freshman,” Brady told the crowd. “She didn’t want her little boy to get hurt.” That protective decision could have changed everything. Instead, it set Brady on an unlikely path that began with him idolizing Barry. 

At Serra High School in California, Brady and his classmates didn’t dream of being the next Joe Montana. “We wanted to be like Barry Bonds,” he admitted. The future NFL star nearly pursued baseball instead, inspired by the Giants slugger who once walked the same halls.

Years before standing in the Hall of Excellence, Tom Brady had already come clean about his baseball obsession. “He went to my high school. I was the biggest fan of him growing up,” Brady once admitted about Barry Bonds, marveling at the slugger’s “pure hitting ability.” It looks like that childhood awe never faded. 

Nevertheless, TB12 chose football, and he shone. His mom, Galynn Brady? Ah, she supported him in his decision since his freshman year. The sisters, however, always remained his motivation and competition. But guess what? That competitiveness in them was brought in by Brady’s father, Tom Sr. “I started it.” He said. “Everything we did, and I mean everything, like running home from church, throwing a rock the farthest … Everything was a competition. I guess it made things really fun, at least for the winner.” Now, we see why Brady has competitiveness in him. So, even if it were baseball, the man would’ve shone there, too. But what changed his mind?

Tom Brady’s Mount Rushmore of Greatness

The seven-time Super Bowl Champion’s journey to becoming the NFL’s greatest QB started with a season most athletes would rather forget. As a high school freshman, he barely saw the field. “We’re 0–8. I was the backup quarterback. They never put me in the game,” Brady admitted. For a kid who dreamed of playing pro baseball like his idol Barry Bonds, football wasn’t even the plan—yet here he was, stuck on a winless team, watching from the sidelines.

But that rough start only fueled him. “I fought really hard over the course of a long time to be the starting quarterback by my senior year,” he said. That 0–8 season could have crushed him. Instead, it became the first chapter in a story about resilience. Brady’s admiration for Bonds is well-known, but the seven-time champ draws inspiration from more than just baseball. In an interview once, he listed his personal “Mount Rushmore” of athletes—icons who shaped his idea of greatness.

“I still love Kobe Bryant,” Brady said, praising the late NBA star’s relentless mindset. Golf’s Rory McIlroy also cut (“what Rory McIlroy’s done, I love that”), along with Michael Jordan, who Brady called “unbelievable”—the gold standard of competition. These weren’t just passing compliments. Each name reflected qualities Brady chased himself: Bryant’s killer instinct, McIlroy’s consistency, Jordan’s clutch gene.

The throughline? Brady has always studied greatness, whether it was Bonds at Serra High or Jordan on the Bulls. Even during that miserable 0–8 freshman year, he was learning. Losing taught him to work harder. Watching the power hitter and all-rounder Barry taught him to dream bigger. And decades later, standing in the Hall of Excellence, he could smile at the irony—the kid who once rode the bench now shares a museum with the very legends who pushed him there.