Tom Brady could have played baseball and snubbed NFL after being drafted by MLB side

dailystar.co.uk:

Tom Brady, the greatest NFL player of all time, officially announced his retirement on Tuesday after 22 seasons in the league.

But things could have been very different.The 44-year-old spent 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, and his final two with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and retires with seven Super Bowls to his name.Brady was drafted by New England in 2000 and the quarterback went on to achieve more individual success than anyone in pro-American football history, but all of his success could have been denied earlier in his career.That's because Brady could have been playing baseball and not American football, as he was drafted by a MLB side.Brady was a talented athlete and clearly could try his hand and most major sports, but before he became the greatest quarterback of all time, he was drafted in the 18th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Montreal Expos.Although he wasn't picked until a later round, it doesn't mean that he wasn't highly rated, as he was snubbed due to the fact that most teams expected him to go and play American football instead, which he later did.That didn't stop the Expos from trying their luck, but it was actually a former baseball team-mate of Brady that told him to go and play American football and give up baseball, a piece of advice that changed the NFL.Frank-Paul Santangelo also played for the Expos, and admitted to ABC news that he told Brady: 'Why in the world would you make $800 a month, play in front of 100 people in the minor leagues, riding buses for ten hours when you can play in front of 100,000 people at (Michigan’s) Big House on Saturday."We were like 'hey Tom, play football'.”And that's exactly what he did, as Brady went on to the NFL Draft where he was pick.