The Quarterback Nobody Recruited

In 2000, a skinny kid from San Mateo, California sat in the NFL Draft green room and waited. And waited. Tom Brady watched 198 players get selected before him. Six quarterbacks went ahead of him. Every scout who clocked his 5.28-second forty-yard dash moved on to flashier prospects. The New England Patriots finally took him in the sixth round, almost as an afterthought.

The teams that passed on Brady were not stupid. They were measuring what they could see — arm strength, sprint times, the square jaw of a prototype quarterback. They wanted someone who looked the part. What they could not measure was the fire in his chest, the obsessive preparation, the refusal to stay on the bench. Within two years, Brady had led the Patriots to a Super Bowl championship. He would win six more.

When Samuel walked into Jesse's house in Bethlehem, he saw Eliab and thought, "Surely this is the one." Tall, strong, commanding — he looked like a king. But the Lord told Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Seven sons paraded past. None chosen. Then they sent for the youngest, the one nobody thought to invite — out in the fields, smelling like sheep. And God said, "Rise and anoint him; this is the one."

God has always drafted in the sixth round.