Tom Brady explains why he mentors Deion Sanders’ son Shedeur

Shedeur Sanders led a 98-yard touchdown drive to send The fifth most-watched college football game of all time on ESPN in overtime Saturday evening.

Then he threw the game-winning touchdown pass in double overtime, leading Colorado past rival Colorado State for a 43-35 victory.

Sanders called the performance “Brady mode.” Like in Tom Brady mode.

Brady mentored Sanders for years. He also signed Sanders to a NIL with his clothing company, Brady Brand.

During a recent appearance on the show Let’s Go! Podcast with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald, Brady explained why he became interested in the Colorado quarterback.

“I’m always here for him,” Brady said. “Because in him I see someone who has a great work ethic but also wants to acquire knowledge. I think we all had a lot of people in our lives on that call that made us successful. Obviously having great parents, but having those other instrumental people who come along at the right time when you’re open to learning.

“People always ask me that,” Brady continued. “How good do you think this guy is going to be?” And I always say it depends on who he surrounds himself with. It depends on who is guiding him. Because even you (Deion Sanders), weren’t a finished product at 21 or 22 years old. I certainly wasn’t. I had the right people in my life and I was open to learning from them.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick was one of the people who helped Brady early in his career, Brady said.

“Man, when I learned from Coach Belichick…when I learned from my boy Alex (Guerrero), that’s when it just went on and on and on,” Brady said. “So there are no limits when you have the opportunity to learn. When you’re hard-headed and you think you know everything, there’s a lot of kids who think they know everything and don’t know (expletive) and that’s the problem.

Gray asked Brady to explain what he saw in Sanders that convinced the seven-time Super Bowl champion that the college quarterback would be worth his time.

“Naturally, he’s very proactive,” Brady said. “We had a conversation, then phone calls, then text messages, then he committed to saying ‘okay, this is what I want to do, I’m very serious about this’. A lot of it is you want to see what their intention is, because when you see someone who is truly open to learning and hungry for knowledge, you want to be able to support them.