Did Brock Huard stop Tom Brady from being a UW Huskies QB?

The world of sports can create some of the greatest what-if scenarios, and we got a pretty good one on Wednesday morning during Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

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What if former UW Huskies quarterback Brock Huard never went to Montlake? Well, perhaps Tom Brady would have ended up there instead of Michigan.

Huard and Brady were each west coast quarterbacks who graduated high school in 1995, and during a conversation with Huard on Brock and Salk, Brady revealed that UW was a school of interest – but it wasn’t an option because of Huard.

“I remember being recruited out of high school and you chose Washington pretty early in your journey, and that was one of the West Coast schools that I obviously loved, like we all did,” Brady said in a conversation with Huard and co-host Mike Salk. “But they were off the board.”

The Puyallup-bred Huard chose to stay near home and go to UW over UCLA. After redshirting in his first season, he was a three-year starter and led the Huskies to a bowl game in each season from 1996-98. Huard declared for the draft after his redshirt junior year and was a third-round pick by the hometown Seahawks in 1999.

Brady also redshirted in his first season at Michigan. He was a backup the next two seasons, including when the Wolverines went unbeaten and won the national title in 1997, and led Michigan to two bowl games and back-to-back 10 wins seasons as the starter in 1998 and 1999. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 draft and went on to win seven Super Bowls during his decorated career.

Salk then had to ask Brady the obvious question: “If Brock had decided to go to UCLA, is there a chance you could have gone to Washington?”

“Well, Cade McNown ends up going to UCLA, so you would have to have Cade go somewhere else, too. And John Fox (not the former Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos head coach) went to USC. He would have to go somewhere else, too,” Brady responded. “But all the hypotheticals, whatever we all get into, I think in the end it all worked out. So I don’t regret at all choosing where I went to go to school.”

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with Tom Brady in the podcast at this link, or in either the video or audio player in this post. Catch Brock and Salk live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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