E l/ E RY W t t K E N 0 Tom Bradyplays another football game. Everyweekend he throrvs more passes to more receivers. The weekends are laid end to end until they become full seasons, the seasons are stacked up until they span decades, and soon enough Bradyhas played more football and thrown more passes, at a higher level of success, than all but a very few men. Four years in high school, five years in college ,L7 years in the NFL. At least 237 total victories. (The records from his flrst two years in high school are spotty) Two college bowl game wins. Six AFC championships. Four Super Bowl rings, with another in his sights after last Saturday's 31-16 divisional-round offing of the Texans in Foxborough. The end is a tiny dot on some distant horizon that only Brady, 39, can envision.
Since first pulling on the navy-colored helmet oftheJunipero Serra High Padres as a backup QB on a winless freshman team in the fall of 1991, Brady has completed more than 6,6O0 passes to at least 120 receivers. He completed passesJo teenage high school teammates who now have their own families, and to teammates at Michigan who are now coaches and entrepreneurs. He completed passes to Patriots teammates who became stars and others who scarcely played at all. He completed passes to a teammate who went to jail and was released (Reche Caldwell), \s{.-\.r-/Y and to another who went to jail and might never leave (Aaron Hernandez). He completed passes to receivers named Brown, ,,' .S*t \:.*= Gray and White; he completed mostly long passes to Randy Moss ffi and mostly short ones to Wes Welker. This fall, despite missing the first four games of the season while serving his Deflategate suspension, Brady threw for 28 touchdowns, with only two interceptions. On Saturday he was put under intense pressure by Houston's defense, tormented byJadeveon Clowney; he tluoNA $tillRA (above (fhr completed fewer than half his pass attempts (f8 of 38) and matched At Serra tligh left) and Nlichigan right, rvith lbrrell), Brady f
)ll t ,rorrr rrrusrRATED l.rANUARy e3, aoiT who caught 11 passes from Brady in 2O13. "That starts with Tom. They've created a whole culture that runs through one person." To his receivers, Brady is a coworker, a taskmaster, a friend. There is one of him and dozens of them. He is an international celebrity with a famous wife and vast resources, yet he unfailingly returns calls, texts and emails. Some pass catchers have remained close to Brady, and some have drifted. Few are forgotten.
) RA0Y'S tIRST tackle team was the freshman i squad at Serra, a private Catholic high school in his hometown of San Mateo, Calif. h. One of the receivers on that team was John Kirby; neither he nor Brady started that year. "I re- i member the first pass I caught from Tommn" says i
Kirby, 39. "It was in a preseason scrimmage against i
St. Ignatius, and we were getting our asses kicked. i
SAYS T0C[AGlN0, "WHEN l'M [0ACHINE MY KIDS, I CAN TELL IHEM: I KN0W THIS GUY ttrt{0 sll0trtfs Tt{AT N0TlilNti [i tiul,0s!iiltLE."
Tommy comes up to the line and gives me the eyebrows, receiver hand-delivered it to Calvin's father, Sean, about 10 days like, I'm coming to you. Then he drops the pass right after Calvin was murdered. Sean,41, had grown up in Lowell, a on me for a 60-yard touchdown." former mill town northwest of Boston, then became a high school Brady improved steadily, and as a senior he was being baseball coach there. In 2o11 he brought a recruit to the BayArea recruited by Division I colleges. Kirby could see and and took his wife and three children as well; when theirreturn feel the difference in his QB's game. "Our senior year home was delayed by Hurricane Irene, they grew more and more he threw me a 17-yard curl against Cardinal Newman," enamored of the West Coast. After the storm passed, Sean and Kirby says. 'As I turned around, I could hear the ball Calvin stayed, even living in a car for a few days, looking for an coming. It was making a hissing sound. It was like a apartmentwhile Calvin, a freshman, began attending Serra. The missile." Thatl994 Serra team won five games and lost rest ofthe familyjoined them later. Calvin graduated from Serra five. Bradywent to Ann Arbor; Kirbywent first to City in'15 and last spring completed his first season on the mound at College of San Francisco and then to Hawaii, where he nearby SanJoaquin DeltaJunior College. Even after moving west, played briefly. The quarterback and the receiver stayed the Rileys remained avid fans of Boston sports teams-but most in touch, even as Brady became famous, talking and of all they cheered for the Patriots and their star quarterback. 3 texting a few times a year. "My son loved Tom Brady," Sean says. "I can't say that enough." sat 3 Their relationship took on a deeper significance last Riley did not know the letter was coming. Opening the envelope, 6rst { summer when 20-year-old Calvin Riley, a Serra gradu- he found two pages, handwritten. "It would have been easy to [just] rets i ate and a former pitcher on the baseball team, was shot send a card or an email," he says. "It tells you what kind of human was 3 in the back and killed while playing Pok6mon Go in a being he is." (Brady was in training camp, having just lost his final rom F San Francisco park. fuley's family had moved to the Bay Deflategate appeal, when he wrote it) Riley declines to share the -e rore 3 Area from Lowell, Mass., five years earlier, and Riley exact contents of the letter, but when asked whether it provided the : had become close friends with Kirby, who worked as comfort, he says, "Of course-it celebrated the life of my kid. Tom -ine E S an assistant football coach and substitute teacher at talked about the brotherhood of Serra, what a special community = tate:,2 Serra. Shortly after Riley's death, Serra football coach it is. That letter, it meant so much." Today the Riley family cheers
:eis # H PatrickWalsh texted Brady and explained the connec- harder than ever for the Patriots and their QB. ldrt F + tion between Riley and Kirby; then Brady and Kirby TWo hours northeast of Serra High, in the small city of Elk
Lick, I C talked. "I told Tommy about the family," says Kirby, Grove, Giovanni Toccagino Jr. works endless hours as the cook ,nat a ; "and Tommy asked,'How about I write them a letter?' " in his family's Italian restaurant, Palermo. More than 20 years llie, 3 That letter arrived at Kirby's house, and the old Padres ago Toccagino was Tom Brady's other primary receiver-"the =
tANUARy 23, 2017 / sp0RTS TLLUsTRATED / 2 5 l\IiI-: 7bm Brody better receiver," says Kirby-on that 5-5 team. Unlike Kirby, Toccagino doesn't have Brady's cell number or email; in fact, he can't recall speaking to his high school QB since the early 2000s, when Brady came home after his first Super Bowl win and the old teammates ran into each other at the gym. "I'm busy-I've got four beautiful kids, and I bust my ass in the family business," Toccagino says, pots and pans crashing in the background. AIso this: "Tom is so busy, And I don't want to be that guy." Toccagino was 6' 3': 190 pounds and a three-year varsity starter at Serra; back then he went by Gianni. He then caught 37 passes for San Jose State as a true freshman, getting serious Division I run long before Brady did. But when his coach resigned, Toccagino found himself marginalized. And bitter. He transferred to San Diego State and never made an impact, then finished his career at D-III Menlo College in Atherton, Calif. "I was a good athlete, and I could get things doner" says Toccagino,40. "But I wasn't coachable; I didn't want to work hard. Tom Brady was a good athlete who wanted to get better and be great." In his mid-2os,
..TOMMY ALWAYS LOOKED NATURAL THROWING,'' SAYS TOCIAGINO."AND HE WAS ALWAYS uN Nfifltfi//,lllltNNINli. EI|EN t'0llsiE ltAH( TllEN."
Toccagino joined the fam- M0NE IHt freshmen arriving in Ann Arbor ily business that his father, alongside Brady in the fall of 1995 was Giovanni Sr., an Italian im- Aaron Shea, a tight end-fullback from migrant, started in L99L. Ottawa,IIl. Brady and Sheawere redshirted At first Toccagino re- as true freshmen, and both got spot duty over the sists telling Brady stories. next two years (including in '97 when Brady backed He truly doesn't want to up Brian Griese for the co-national champions). The be that gay. And there two twentysomethings shared an apartment at 824 are dinners to cook. But McKinley Avenue. "I lived in the basement, and he slowly he warms to the lived above me," says Shea. "Five-thirty in the morn- topic. "I've got a scar on ing, you could hear the door open and close. That my chin from his fat butt," says Toccagino, describing the time was Tom, going to run stadium stairs, even though they collided on the basketball court diving for a loose ball. the whole team was [scheduled to run] stairs at2:3o."
"Tommy always looked natural throwing a ball-and he was The roommates flnally shared the spotlight in 1998, tr always unnaturalrorrning. Even worse back then." He tells the the year Shea caught his first of flve touchdown passes story of a 95-yard touchdown pass, senior year, when Brady gave as a Wolverine, a 26-yard wheel route from Brady 4 him that look at the line and then flred the ball immediately to start the scoring in a 27-O romp over Penn State. against soft coverage, letting Toccagino do the rest. "My five-year-old son could have caught that pass, it :€ And then there was this: Four years ago, when Toccagino's son, was laid in there so perfectly," says Shea,40. When = Damien, was six, he was assigned a first-grade project that involved that five-year-old, Kinzy, was born on May 3Lr 2OL1., writing a letter to a celebrity. Toccagino encouraged his son to write Aaron (who played six years in the NFL and worked to Brady; when the letter was done, they mailed it to Brady's parents six years in the Browns'front office) texted Brady in San Mateo.Afewweeks later, a return letter arrived containing a and asked if he would be the boy's godfather. Brady note and some signed pictures. "If he lived down the street,I'm sure texted back, "It would be my honor." 3! I would just roll over there and we would connectr" says Toccagino, Brady's first game after his suspension was in Cleve- What does having played with Brady mean to him? "It puts a land, where the Sheas have settled. After slaying the = smile on my face when somebody asks about itr" he says. 'And Browns, Brady metAaron in the stadium tunnel, along when I'm coaching my kids, I can tell them: I know this guy who with Kinzy and his two sisters. They all shared a hug, shows that nothing is impossible." and Aaron asked, "What are you doing with that jer- f $ l roo*rr ,rrusTRATED /.rANUARy a3, a0r7 TOM TONI CLUI sey?" Brady said, "It's yours, JAN. 22; 6:40 P.M. ET Ilradyandhis for the whole Shea family." pass catchers (like Tai Streets, a three-sport STEELERS AI PATRIOTS Brar.rch, near left) star from chicago, also ar- GREG A. BEDARD PICKS THE AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME rvon three Super rived with Brady at Michi- -Bou,ls in the 2o0os the and finishecl 16 0 gan, but he didn't suffer in'07 (witlr Welker same wait to get on the field' THIS WILL be an old-school we-hate-them, they-hate- and Moss). Streets was a senior with 77 us grudge match with modern trappings, The Steelers career receptions for eight think the Patriots cheated them out of Super Bowls touchdowns by the time in 2001 and '04 because of Spygate. And you may Brady finally became the starter, in 1998, and that recall that when these teams met in Foxborough in '15, year he caught 67 more balls for 11 TDs. "We knew Tom Pittsburgh's headsets went on the fritz and started was the real deal all aIong," says Streets, 39, "but we pumping out the local radio broadcast of the game. No had good guys ahead of him. He was precise. All you wonder coach Mike Tomlin called the Patriots a------s had to do was get open. He was emotional, too, man. after beating the Chiefs on Sunday. [Credit Antonio He threw a touchdown pass to me against Penn State, Brown for that bulletin-board material.l The Steelers and he came running up, trash-talking the defensive ought to be less concerned about past slights and back with that high voice. It was pretty funny." more worried about f inding a way to slow Tom Brady, Streets played six seasons in the NFL and caught because he owns them at Gillette Stadium lwhere 196 passes. For the last 15 years he's run an AAU he's 4-0 against theml and has completed 75.9% of basketball program in Chicago, MeanStreels (whose his passes, with a 136.4 rating, in two games against alumni include Derrick Rose and Anthony Davis); he defensive coordinator Keith Butler. Specifically, also coaches the varsity hoops team at Thornton Town- Butler's Steelers have had no answer for receiver ship High in the suburb of Harvey. In 2015, when the Julian Edelman, who's caught 20 of 2? targets in those rbor Colts hosted the Patriots in Week 6, Streets traveled two meetings. 0ne thing to keep in mind: In their past 11-as three hours south and met Brady after the game. "I'm get-togethers New England has never faced the full rom not texting with Tom all the time," he says, "so it was combined firepower of Ben Roethlisberger [betow], i:ted cool to see him. Same old Tom, down to earth. Then Brown and Le'Veon Bell. Which means that Sunday will : :he they made him go get on the bus." present an altogether new challenge for the Patriots' ri:ed One day this fall Marcus Knight returns a phone call def ense, The best skill-position combo they faced this The out of the blue. "I'm sorryr" he says, "things are a little season was way back in Week I against the Cardinals: 824 in turmoil right now." Knight, 38, has been the receiv- Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald and David Johnson. dhe ers coach at Northern Michigan for the last five years, The best quarterback they've faced orn- but in November the Wildcats parted ways with coach since then was the Seahawks' Ihat Chris Ostrowsky. Knight seems unlikely to be kept on Russell Wilson, in Week 10, and he rugh the new staff. ("You got ajob for me?" he asks,jokingly. torched them in a 31-24 Seattle :30." "I'll work my ass off.") Knight caught 81 passes in 1998 win. The Patriots simply are of from Brady, including the decisive not battle-tested against 998, tr and '99, most them Lsses TD in a 3l-27 victory over Penn State the latter year. an offense of this caliber. If rady "Tom had a three-by-three-foot square to put that ball Hoethlisberger doesn't rapidly tate. in," says Knight, "and that's exactly where he put it." improve on the road, however, it Away f home in the ss, it Knight (who wasn't close with Brady) remembers that won't matter, rom = ihen during their junior year, when Brady was the starter, regular season he completed just = passes yards !011, coach Lloyd Carr would give freshman QB Drew Henson 59.4% of his for 238 rked some series in games. "Tom won the job," says Knight, per game, with nine touchdowns, rady "and then he had to keepwinringit." eight interceptions and a 78.4 rady Of all the big personalities in Brady's Michigan rating. At Arrowhead Stadium huddles, none were bigger than David Terrell's. A on Sunday he was even worse: leve- 6'3", 215-pound receiver from Richmond, Terrell, a 224 yards, no TDs, one INT and a r the true freshman in Brady's junior year, was assigned 72.5 rating. Pittsburgh has zero Ri Llong the number l jerseg reserved for Wolverines receiv- chance against New England if h.g, ers who were expected to become stars. In their two Road Ben shows up at Gillette. "' ,**fu, t jer- seasons together Terrell caught 85 passes for nine TDs THE PICK Patriots 30, Steelers 27
]ANUARY 23 2017 / SPORTS ILLU,,, O,,O I f_f l\11I-: 7?.rm Brady
and displayed an ego to match the uniform digit. "Every single brothers, right from the beginning," Branch explains. huddle, I'm telling Tom,'I'm open! Throw the ball to me!' " "Obviously, he's Michael Jackson, so I was Tito." As Terrellr 37, remembers, "But Tom was a tough motherf-----, and with all of Brady's most favored Patriots receivers, he had that California-Joe-Montana-smooth personality. He'd Branch would often line up without an assigned route. be like,'I gotcha, Dave. Chilt. Next play.' In college, everybody "Tom would call 65 C Option X Q," Branch says. "I thinks they're the s---; you're in the moment. But I look back-it would be the X, and Q meant that I had three pos- was awesome, man, because Tom's personalityjust reverberated sible routes based on the defense. We had to be on through the whole team." the same page." Terrell was selected with the eighth pick, by the Bears, in the Oftentheywere. In NewEngland's Super BowIXXXIX 2001 draft but lasted only five seasons in the NFL and caught win over the Eagles on Feb. 6,2Oo5, Branch grabbed just 128 passes. In '06 he was living in Southern California and 11 passes from Brady and was named MVP-and yet arranged to bring his eight-year-old son, DavidJr., to one of Brady's the former receiver's memory drifts to an incompletion off-season workouts in L.A., where the QB threw to the young boy. that evening that bounced off his foot when Brady "[My son] made a one-handed catch," says Terrell, who today co- tried to connect with him despite calling a screen owns a company that helps transform renters into home owners. pass (to a running back) in the huddle. Afterward, This fall, David Jr., a senior, was the leading receiver at Loyola Brady "came off yelling, 'Tito! Tito! I'm trying to get Academy in Chicago, which ranked No. 1 in Illinois and reached you the ball!'" says Branch. the Class 8A championship game. "I know this," says the elder When Brady won his 201st game on Dec. 4, passing Terrell: "He loves Tom Brady, and he loves the Patriots." Peyton Manning for the alltime victories mark, Branch
,.I WAS A NOBOOY, AND I JUSI WANTED TO GEI BEITE R," SAYS EDELMAN. "TOM IAUEHI ME HOW IO IIE A IIIItIFESSITINAL, IItITII T tI TIIEAT IIEtIIILE."
1lEN BRABY arrived in New England in 2000 as a sixth-round draft choice and the fourth man on a three-deep depth chart, receiver Troy Brown had already been playing for seven years with the incumbent, Drew Bledsoe; Kevin Faulk, a pass-catching back, had played a season with the starter. Those two would go on to haul in 632 of Brady's NFL passes between them. But first they played while Brady watched. "I never saw another rookie quarterback like him," says Brown. "He was fourth on the depth chart, but when he got a rep, he would not hesitate to tell veteran receivers if they did something wrong. Typical Tom. He just wanted to kick somebody's butt." "Skinny kid in the huddle," says Faulk, "and he's trying to be demanding. But that attitude helped him take over the team." In 17 NFL seasons Brady has thrown completions to 99 dif- texted his old QB, "It was an honor to have played some ferent pass catchers. Sixteen of those caught just a single pass of those games with you." Brady texted back, "It was from him, ranging from journeyman tight end Kellen Winslow an honor to play with you." to offensive linemen Joe Andruzzi and Logan Mankins. One of those single-pass catchers was running back Amos Zereoa6, ELKER ARRIIIE0 through a trade with who in his seventh and final season,2005, played three games the Dolphins in 2OO7, along with Moss for the Patriots. Zereou6's Brady connection was a five-yard (trade) and Dont6 Stallworth (free agent), checkdown in a 28-20 mid-October loss in Denver-not that and that trio launched the Patriots to a he remembers it. "I caught a pass from Tom?" the 4O-year-old 16-0 regular season. "What we played, it was almost asks, genuinely unaware. "I did not realize that. Makes my day. like a controlled form of street ball," says Welker, who I will tell the grandchildren someday." four times caught 100 or more passes from Brady. "Tom In 2OO2, Brady's first full year as a starter, Deion Branch would see what I was going to do by my body language. = arrived as a second-round pick from Louisville. Brady almost He justwanted me to be decisive. If you getwishy-washy = immediately nicknamed the rookie Tito-"because we were like be ready to get mother-effed [by Brady] pretty good. !
f [J r*otrr,r,r]srRATEu /rANLrARv ?2,?t)tj ilrs. fourth quarter Brady called a play in which - -\s one wideout was expected to read the cov- ers, erage and run one ofthree possible routes. ute. That player was supposed to be Moss, but s. -I Stallworth was in the game instead. And )os- that was a problem. "We're breaking the :on huddle, and Brady sees I'm in the game," says Stallworth, 36. "We've both got this \T\ Oft, s-- look on our faces because I've never ,bed practiced this route. So Brady says, Just go deep,' and the play ends up beitg a 69-yard i 1-et tion touchdown. We literally drew it up in the ad]- sand. The guy is amazing." 'een ard, N A [0[0 weekdayevening,Julian I get Edelman stands at the back of the Patriots'Iocker room, a cino California boy preparing to li]ch face the chill in a giant, hooded parka. Edelman was a seventh-round pick by the iTn Patriots in 2O09 out of Kent State, where ]U he was an option QB with quick feet and strong instincts. He caught 78 passes in his first four NFL seasons,415 in the last four (including a team-high 98 in'16) and now, as a top-tier receiver, is in year three of a four-year, $17 million contract. All of BA.SI.I BRO',THtill.$ But then the next dap in a this, largely because of his relationship with Brady. Brady's headbutting meeting, he would use this "He went out of his way to take me under his wing," says hijinks startcd at soft voice: O. K., babe. On this Edelman, 30. "I was a nobody, and I just wanted to get better. Serra ar-rd in continue one. . . He's ultracompetitive, Tom worked with me." Now Edelman and Brady throw together New England, u,here but he knows that the next frequently in Los Angeles during the off-season. 'And it's not just last Satnrdavthe QB is not the time to ye11." physical element]," says Edelman. "He taught me how to be fbund Edelnan (ll) day [the eighttimcs. Welker, 35, and Brady a professional, how to treat people in the workplace." remain close friends. The At the opposite end of the room, Chris Hogan sits in front of his receiver (who hasn't played locker. His route here was even more unusual than Edelman's: since lastJanuary but who also hasn't officially retired) Hogan chose lacrosse at Penn State over football at UConn or visited Foxborough in September, during Brady's suspen- Rutgers; and when four years of lacrosse were finished, he played sion, and while he expected only to talk, Brady instead a season of football at Monmouth. He was cut by the 49ers, ome roped Welker into a throwing session. "It was like we Giants and Dolphins before spending four years with the Bills \vas never missed a beat," says Welker. "It's funny. I could see and then signing with the Patriots last spring. This season he some changes in his motion. He's more relaxed, using had 38 receptions and tied DeSean Jackson for the NFL lead his whole body, almost like a golfer." with17.9 yards per catch. rith Stallworth arrived from Philadelphia, by way of The man who takes the top off defenses for Brady recounts his ,Ioss New Orleans. "One of my first practices, I dropped first day in Foxborough, when he made a point of introducing Ent), a ball in the end zonel'he recalls. "Tom put it on the himself to the QB. "He knew exactly who I was-he knew my toa numbers, didn't lead me-but still, it was a drop, and name, he knew I was here, he knew about me," says Hogan, 28. nost Tom is all fuming. I'm thinking,Great,I pissedoff Brady "Coming from where I did, the path I took, I was pretty blown s-ho already. But he's like,'F---! F---! F---! I didn't lead you away by that." Iom enough.' I've played with some competitive people, like Hogan tosses two gloves into his locker, grabs a pair of street iage. Ray Lewis. Brady is right up there." sneakers and sits down. He's in the club now, shocked to stand = lshy, Early in that unbeaten season the Patriots visited the on the other side of the velvet rope. "I mean, think about that," ood. = Cowboys, who at 5-0 also entered without a loss. In the he says. "TbmBrady." tr
]ANUARY E3 2017 / SPORTS ]LLU,,'O,,O I9 '