HOUSTON — It’s a career defined by spectacular numbers: now 10 Super Bowls, six championship rings and four Super Bowl Most Valuable Player awards.
There’s also a lesser-known figure which is no less astounding: one set of shoulder pads for Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady.
What does it mean to Douglas Pads & Sports to have Tom Brady wearing their product?
"It's pretty awesome,” said Ryan Huntsman, Douglas’ COO. “I mean, it's a guy that everybody knows.”
The Houston-based company has been protecting football players at all levels for decades with products made in the United States, including Brady, even before he was the Tom Brady.
“Do you treat his pads any differently than anybody else's?” asked KHOU 11’s Jason Bristol.
“No, sir. Every pad here that comes to Douglas we treat the same,” Huntsman said.
Brady has been wearing the exact set of shoulder pads he was issued in college, way back in 1995 at Michigan, Huntsman said. While a duplicate was made, it was the original which kept coming back to Douglas to be reconditioned.
Until one day it didn’t.
It happened this past summer, when the Douglas team suggested Brady try a new model of shoulder pads called the FF-17. The FF-17 pads are smaller and more streamlined, providing Brady with a wider range of motion to throw the football.
“The pad that he was wearing, we've kind of gone away from, so it's kind of outdated and no longer being made,” Huntsman said.
Did he think Brady would go for it?
“No,” Huntsman said. But he did.
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes also wears Douglas pads.
Brady’s new set, obviously, is the right fit. Even though KHOU 11 wasn’t able to ask Tom about his big switch, making another big game is proof: Whether it’s a new team or a new set of shoulder pads, he remains the same old Tom Brady.