What more needs to be said about the storied career of Tom Brady? Arguably the best quarterback in NFL history, if not just of his generation, Brady is set to ride off into retirement after a hall of fame career with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But long before he became an NFL icon, he was a scrappy quarterback for the Michigan Wolverines who got his big break after a Michigan run to a national title. And one of the many teams he would come to thrive against was, unfortunately, your Penn State Nittany Lions.
Michigan was 3-0 against Penn State in games Brady played in, but Brady was the starting quarterback for two of those games. And from just those two games, it was pretty evident that Brady was going to be a true gamer who could never be counted out. If only we knew at the time what we were truly witnessing.
With Brady supposedly calling it a career of playing football, let’s take a look back at the games Penn State played against one of the all-time greats, even though it didn’t fare well for the Nittany Lions.
1997: No. 4 Michigan 34, No. 2 Penn State 8
The 1997 meeting between Penn State and Michigan is one Penn State fans would love to pretend never happened. The Wolverines came into Beaver Stadium in front of a then-record crowd of 97,498 for a game with pivotal national championship stakes on top of the inside track to a Rose Bowl appearance and Michigan completely dominated the Nittany Lions from start to finish. But this one had absolutely nothing to do with Tom Brady.
Brady was the backup to Brian Griese, but the star of Michigan was none other than Charles Woodson, who hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass on offense and held Joe Jurevicius to just 20 yards on three receptions.
Brady did make it into the box score though as he relieved Griese in garbage time with the game well in Michigan’s hand in the fourth quarter. Brady was sacked for a loss of five yards by Maurice Daniels.
Michigan, of course, would go on to earn a split national championship after their major victory in Happy Valley. Michigan was co-national champions of the 1997 season with Nebraska, who scored their controversial overtime victory at Missouri on this same day with current head coach Scott Frost playing quarterback.