Steve Spurrier crossed paths with Tom Brady twice during his coaching career.
The first time came in 2000 at the East-West Shrine Bowl. Spurrier served as one of the head coaches after winning his sixth SEC title at Florida — seventh if you ask him.
Brady was a member of his East team, which also featured former Gators quarterback Doug Johnson and offensive tackle Cooper Carlisle. Spurrier was approached by Brady after practice one day.
"We were out at Stanford,” Spurrier said, “and he came by and said, ‘Coach Spurrier, would you watch me throw the ball a little bit’? I said sure. So we get out there and he starts throwing.”
Spurrier observed him and noticed that he was holding the ball low instead of by his ear. Apparently, Brady wasn’t the only signal caller from Ann Arbor with that issue.
“Those Michigan quarterbacks, they sort of held the ball down around their waist instead of just, you know, up around the numbers,” Spurrier said. “I just told him, ‘Hey, I think if you brought it up around your numbers, your a natural passer. Just hold it a little higher.
“He's the only guy that ever asked me to look at him throwing. He really was.”
Jamie Speronis, Spurrier’s former director of football operations, met Brady years later at an Under Armour event. When he mentioned Spurrier coaching him up on his throwing mechanics, Brady remembered.
“I asked Tom Brady about it,” Speronis recalled, “and he said, ‘Oh yeah. I appreciate that. That's something I still try to work on.’ And if you look at Tom Brady now, he still does the same thing.”
After trailing 13-7 at half, Spurrier’s East team outscored the West 21-0 in the third quarter en route to a 35-21 win. Johnson threw three touchdowns in the game and Brady tossed a 55-yard TD.
He and the Head Ball Coach would meet again in 2003, this time in the NFL.
Brady and the Patriots traveled to the nation’s capitol to face Spurrier’s Redskins in Week 4. Both teams had a 2-1 record and New England was a year removed from its first championship under coach Bill Belichick.
“At that time, they were a good team but they didn't have all those Super Bowls,” Spurrier said. “I remember we held on. I think Lavar Arrington made a sack late in the game.”
After Washington jumped out a 20-3 lead, Brady rallied the Patriots in the second half with a pair of touchdown passes. But Spurrier’s defense picked him off three times and made one final defensive stand to prevail.
“It was one of our bigger wins,” Speronis said of the Redskins’ 20-17 victory. “It was a good day. Not not really for me. I'm a Patriots fan.”
After the loss to Spurrier, the Patriots went undefeated the rest of the season and won Super Bowl XXXVI. They reeled off a 21-game winning streak that lasted until Halloween 2004 against Pittsburgh.
Spurrier’s tenure in Washington didn’t work out, but he did beat the greatest coach in NFL history.
“I guess when people say, ‘What kind of pro coach were you?’, I should say, Well, I'm 1-0 against Belichick,” Spurrier quipped. “I must have been pretty good.”
