WOLVERINES

Tom Brady: Jim Harbaugh was UM’s top recruit

Angelique S. Chengelis
The Detroit News
Tom Brady and Jim Harbaugh speak Wednesday at Hill Auditorium.

Ann Arbor – Former Michigan quarterback Tom Brady, a four-time Super Bowl champion, gave his hearty endorsement of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

Brady, making a rare appearance at his alma mater on Wednesday for the Signing Day extravaganza, “Signing with the Stars” at Hill Auditorium, joined a number of celebrities to introduce Michigan’s 2016 freshman class.

Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, was asked if he has a chance to follow Michigan football.

“I watch every single game. I follow it,” Brady said. “But I think our biggest recruiting day was last year when we got coach Harbaugh back. Every great organization starts at the top. I competed against him, and lost, but we got the right man for the job.”

During his on-stage conversation with Harbaugh, Brady shared a story from Michigan’s 1997 national championship season.

“We got up on the board and coach (Lloyd) Carr asked the team, ‘What should some of our goals be?’” Brady said. “Just like previous years, we used to write them down and carry them in our wallet. There were so many goals, there were like 15 goals, win at home, do this, do that, and our fullback, who was a great player at Michigan, from the state of Michigan, Chris Floyd said, ‘How about we just have one? Just win.’”

Since this was a recruiting-day function, Brady, who is from northern California, said moving to Michigan and dealing with the winters “was rough.”

But Harbaugh chimed in.

“We have global warming now, Tom,” Harbaugh said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “That’s really helped recruiting.”

Michigan�s Harbaugh bridges recruiting generation gap