Copyright Athlon Sports
Tom Brady urges patience with Texas Longhorns QB Arch Manning amid criticism and high expectations. Brady highlights today’s harsher media environment compared to when he played in college. He believes constant negativity threatens Manning’s confidence and development as a young quarterback. NFL icon Tom Brady did not have the same platform Arch Manning currently has when the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback was in college. While Manning now plies his trade in the SEC with the Texas Longhorns, Brady played his college football with the Michigan Wolverines in the Big Ten. More importantly, Brady is not the nephew of two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Peyton and Eli Manning, and was not exactly a highly touted QB in college. Certainly not on the same level as Manning, who currently has the spotlight on him every single game. Brady himself admits that he was far from an exceptional quarterback with the Wolverines, which is why he wants the fans and the media to ease up on the criticism on Manning now that he’s struggling to find his footing in Texas. Brady played four seasons for Michigan between 1996 and 1999. He won the national championship in 1997 as a sophomore quarterback, but he only played four games for the Wolverines that season. In four years at Ann Arbor, Brady completed 395-of-638 passes for 4,773 yards and 30 touchdowns. He was then drafted by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. It has been an entirely different story for Manning with the Longhorns. There has been some massive hype surrounding the young man since his high school days. This only meant that expectations were very high when he committed to Texas, and the 21-year-old quarterback has not exactly lived up to the hype thus far. Now in his junior year, Manning has been underwhelming. He showed some flashes of brilliance in Texas’ 23-6 win over the Oklahoma Sooners on Oct. 11, but he fell flat in Saturday’s 16-13 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats. Manning logged 12-of-27 completed passes for 132 yards and zero TDs, leading to some backlash over his lackluster performance. Brady has shared his opinion on Manning’s situation, and the 15-time Pro Bowler got brutally honest about the negativity surrounding the young man. “Before, [players] had the kind of ability to fail when people weren’t watching, to build that resiliency within themselves,” Brady told Sports Illustrated in an interview published on Tuesday. “So I think it’s a real challenge these days for these young kids because Arch Manning, you know, seems like a great kid and great player.” Brady then turned his attention to Manning’s legendary uncles, who he believes did not have to deal with the same intense amount of pressure the Texas quarterback has to face every single day. “Peyton [Manning] had a lot of years to develop,” Brady said. “Eli [Manning] had a lot of years to develop and, you know, I was a college kid once, too, and I wasn’t the best quarterback at that time. And how people remember me after my pro career was a lot different than I remember me after my college career, which is a lot different than how they remember me after my high school year. So give people a chance to learn and grow and develop and put them in the right situation.” Brady also feels that all the criticism being thrown in Manning’s direction could be counterproductive in terms of building the young man’s confidence. “It’s just a very interesting media environment with the negativity associated with people,” Brady continued. “And I’d love to see some of these young players not have their confidence broken, you know, because they’re not their uncle… as a 17- or 18-year-old kid.” Based on his statement here, Brady remains confident in Manning’s potential. While his words will not magically remove the hype surrounding the Longhorns star, Brady has made his opinion on the matter abundantly clear.
