ESPN runs The Brady 6 tonight at 8 p.m., which will feature a look at Tom Brady’s successful career and the six quarterbacks selected in front of him.

Amazingly, Brady lasted 198 picks before going at 199 overall to the New England Patriots.

In a rare glimpse of spontaneous emotion, Brady cried during the program while discussing his feelings over his slide into the sixth round.

The 2010 NFL MVP wasn’t the first guy who NFL scouts wildly misfired on but the 2000 draft taught us a few important lessons:

1. NFL scouts can range from very good to downright dreadful: A collection of individuals thought Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger, and Spergon Wynn were either better quarterbacks or better suited to play within its particular offensive structure. This should not be a shock though. Once upon a time, a Hall of Fame head coach once said that he would have cut Joe Montana if the Notre Dame quarterback ended up on his team’s roster prior to the start of the ’79 season. That coach’s name? Tom Landry.
2. Life is as much about situation and environment as it is talent: He fell into the hands of arguably the greatest coach in NFL history, Bill Belichick; and backed up Drew Bledsoe, who Jets linebacker Mo Lewis blew up in Week 2 of the 2001 season. Hypothetically, if Brady fell to San Francisco in Tim Rattay’s eventual role (Rattay was drafted in the seventh round of the 2000 draft) as a backup to Jeff Garcia, who knows if he would have been as successful. Garcia made three straight Pro Bowls from 2000-2002. Meanwhile, Rattay didn’t get a significant look as a starter until 2004. Now, he plies his trade for the Las Vegas Locomotives in the UFL. The line of also-ran to hero is that thin sometimes.
3. When opportunity knocks, you better answer the door with a sledgehammer in tow: The Lewis hit on Bledsoe gave Brady an opportunity to succeed but where TB12 jumps ahead of the pack is what he did with that chance. Brady didn’t pull a Kevin Kolb and play well against subpar teams or squads in prevent mode when given a chance to start. His team won the Super Bowl.

To this day, it is astonishing that a collection of scouts, whose sole responsibility is to provide a clear and concise scouting picture to their respective employers, failed to recognize the potential of a player that owns three Super Bowl rings, two Super Bowl MVPs, and two league MVP awards.

Brady was not a fifth-string jabroni holding a clipboard for a non-power conference school. Although he split time with Drew Henson at Michigan, the California native showed glimpses of what is becoming a first ballot Hall of Fame career while wearing the maize and blue of the Wolverines.

The Brady 6 is a tribute to the underdog that overcame the doubters, became a wildly successful quarterback…and yes, even married one of the world’s most famous supermodels.