College football has changed dramatically in recent years. With student-athletes now able to profit from their names, images, and likenesses (NIL) while also transferring schools more freely, many say the landscape looks more like the “wild west” than the traditional game fans grew up with.
Legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady recently discussed the changes during a conversation with FOX Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt. While he respects today’s players, Brady admitted he’s thankful he didn’t have to deal with these pressures during his time at Michigan.
“They’re young. They don’t have life experience,” Brady said on Big Noon Conversations. “It should be the parents. Be a good parent. Teach your kid the right values. What’s going to sustain them in their careers over a period of time? Whether it’s football or whether it’s business or whether it’s teaching or law school or medical school or a trade, whatever you want to do, you’re going to have to go through hard things in your life. You’re going to have to make tough choices. The value isn’t always about the last dollar.”
Brady emphasized that while NIL opportunities can be important, they should not overshadow the deeper lessons that sports and life are meant to teach. “So I think all these things that are happening in college sports, we’re prioritizing the wrong things. We’re valuing the wrong things. I’m not saying it’s not important. It’s one of 10 things that are important, and certainly to me, it’s not the most important. So when kids do go through that the right way, they’re actually learning the right values. When you have the right values in life, that’s going to sustain you as you move on through the rest of your life.”
The seven-time Super Bowl champion wondered aloud whether athletes today will gain the same “sustainable traits” that shaped him as both a player and a person. “Those sustainable traits that I think are invaluable to their life and life experience,” Brady said, are worth far more than any quick paycheck.
Brady reflected on his own college career at Michigan, which wasn’t easy. He rode the bench for two years before finally becoming the starter in 1998. That waiting period, he believes, shaped him. “My college experience was very challenging. It was very competitive. Those traits transformed my life as a professional. I was ready to compete against anybody, because the competition in college toughened me up so much that I had a self-belief and self-confidence in myself that whatever I faced, I could overcome that,” he said.
That’s why Brady worries about the impact of the transfer portal on today’s student-athletes. “I think if we take that away from a young student athlete, to say, ‘You know what, I know it’s tough to compete, but what we’re going to do before you have to compete. We’re actually going to put you somewhere else so that you don’t have to compete.’ That is absolutely the wrong thing to do to a young child.”
Brady’s words strike a chord beyond the football field. For Christian parents, his message echoes biblical truth: the importance of raising children with values that last. Proverbs 22:6 reminds us to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
While NIL money and fame may fade, character, perseverance, and faith are traits that endure for a lifetime.