Holy cow! A White QB going out of his way to help a White receiver? Nice story about Welker and Brady.
http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nfl/columns/story?columnist=macmullan_jackie&id=6006220
Tom Brady studied Welker on film, went to vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli and asked, "When is this guy's contract up? He's our kind of player."
New England scooped him up in 2007 for the price of one second-round draft pick and one seventh-round draft pick. Brady discovered his new target was both meticulous and free-spirited, one of the most creative practical jokers in the locker room.
(snip)
The anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament were torn. He was done for the day, the season and maybe, just maybe, forever.
He called his parents from the locker room because he knew they'd be watching, worrying. Leland and Shelley Welker answered the phone, with brother Lee nearby. Their second son, the comedy king, the unflappable overachiever, broke down and wept.
"He was crying out of control," Leland Welker said. "Just devastated."
For two days, Wes Welker slumped on the couch, propped his leg up and ate boxes of Oreo cookies while media experts delivered sober epitaphs. He heard them say he would not play for a year. He heard them say he'd never be the same.
He had a visitor, and it was Tom Brady, who was almost a year and a half removed from his own ACL tear.
"You'll be back," Brady told Welker. "I'll help you."
(snip)
The Welkers flew out to visit on July 4 weekend. They observed their son's workout with Brady, which included a cornucopia of cones and bands and medicine balls of all sizes. The grueling conditioning session lasted an hour and a half. When Welker and Brady were finished, their bodies were drenched in sweat.
After lunch Brady and Welker were back at it, this time on an empty field at USC, where they ran hundreds of routes. After another hour and a half, they came over and talked with the folks a bit.
"I thought they were done, but they ran full speed 50-yard dashes, a half-speed 50, then another full-speed 50," Leland Welker said. "They did that 17 times." (snip)