From His Hatred for Coffee to His Early Bedtime: 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Tom Brady

Tom Brady is just days away from appearing in the Super Bowl — but you probably knew that already.

It’s likely no surprise that the New England Patriots quarterback is in the championship game once again, as this is his ninth appearance in the Super Bowl during the nearly two decades he’s played in the league.

Brady, 41, is a five-time NFL champion, married to Gisele Bündchen — one of the most famous supermodels in the world — and has spent his career with famed coach Bill Belichick.

But despite his prominence in the spotlight, fans still have more to discover about Brady

Here are some little-known facts about Brady ahead of his appearance in Super Bowl LIII against the Los Angeles Rams, which will air Sunday, Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. ET. on CBS.

1. Brady was taken in the sixth (!) round of the 2000 NFL draft.

Six quarterbacks — Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger, and Spergon Wynn — had all been taken by the time the Patriots selected Brady with the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL Draft.

“You know, [my parents] were just so supportive of me,” Brady told ESPN while recalling the difficult day that beckoned the start of his professional career. “They take it as emotional as I do. Finally, when the Patriots called, I was so excited. I was, like, ‘I don’t have to be an insurance salesman,’ you know?”

He would lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl in 2002 after their starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, was injured in the second game of the season.

2. He was an intern for Merrill Lynch.

If he didn’t make it to the NFL, Brady would have had a career in finance! The Pats QB was once an intern for Merrill Lynch in Ann Arbor while completing his education at the University of Michigan.

“Found my old resume! Really thought I was going to need this after the 5th round,” Brady wrote in a Facebook post showing his resume just four years ago.

3. Brady wasn’t just drafted into the NFL.

On June 2, 1995, Brady was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 18th round of the MLB Draft, thanks to his talents as a catcher on his high school baseball team. He would skip out on playing in the major leagues and opt to play football at the University of Michigan instead, then, of course, in the NFL.

“I was fortunate to be selected by the Expos in the 1995 MLB Draft,” he wrote on Facebook three years ago. “But…..I’m so happy I stuck with football!”

4. He loves to ski — but isn’t very good.

According to Boston.com, Brady and former quarterback Bledsoe have remained friends ever since the former took over the Patriots starting job 17 years ago, and they have even gone skiing together. Unfortunately, Brady was pretty “awful,” Bledsoe admitted.

“I think [Brady’s] gotten a little bit better,” he said, according to Boston.com. “I think he and Gisele both started skiing at the same time and all the reports I get is that she’s a better skier than he is already. He’s absolutely going to get lapped by his kids.”

5. Brady likes to hit the hay early … really early.

While many of his rivals’ fans might poke fun at Brady’s age, one of the keys to his longevity may come from his nightly routine of going to bed early — at 8:30 p.m.

“I don’t go to bed at 1 a.m. and wake up at 5 a.m. and say, ‘Let’s see if I can get this done today,’ ” Brady told ABC News in 2016.

“Because my career is so important, I think I make a lot of, I wouldn’t call them sacrifices, but just concessions for my job,” he continued. “I love what I do and I want to do it for a long time.”

That means Brady gets in his recommended eight hours of sleep (and maybe a little more) since he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. every morning.

6. He doesn’t drink coffee.

According to Brady, while he wakes up at the crack of dawn, he doesn’t need coffee to help him rise. In fact, he’s never had a sip of it.

“For one reason or another, I never had coffee or anything like that,” he told WEEI in 2016. “I just never tried it.”

7. Brady’s quote in his high school yearbook alluded to his competitive mentality.

“If you want to play with the big boys, you gotta learn to play in the tall grass,” Brady wrote in his yearbook while a student at Junipero Serra High School in California.

8. He attended the 1981 NFC Championship game when he was 4 — and cried the whole time!

Brady was a San Francisco 49ers fan growing up, as the team played just a few miles from his hometown of San Mateo.

Though he might have been too young to appreciate it, Brady was at the legendary 1981 NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys — and cried the whole time because he couldn’t see the field.

9. After the draft, he told Patriots owner Robert Kraft he was his “best decision.”

According to Kraft, when he was introduced to Brady for the first time nearly two decades ago, the young quarterback was beaming with confidence, and even told him, “I’m the best decision this organization has ever made,” and “you’ll never regret picking me.”