Tom Brady can still sling it. YouTube Derek Muller was inches from finding that out the hard way.
Muller, a YouTuber who focuses on science videos, recently did a deep dive on the unique physics of throwing a football. To help collect the data, he enlisted the help of the legendary former New England Patriots quarterback.
In his recent video, Muller broke down why it was actually impossible for a quarterback to throw a truly “perfect” spiral.
Part of that involved Muller getting up close and personal with a football that was thrown at full tilt. In this case, it was Muller filming a pass thrown by the 47-year-old Brady coming right at him.
Well, just off to the side. Brady channeled his inner William Tell by aiming a pass just to the side of Muller’s head (and camera). The end result was a football whizzing by Muller’s head at 49 MPH.
“My god, that’s scary. That’s like 80 kilometers per hour,” the Canadian YouTuber said. “Would you actually use that speed in a game?”
“That would be a good speed. That’s a normal pass,” Brady replied.
“That’s, like, terrifying,” Muller said.
As for the data, Muller found out why football always seemed to have a little wobble, no matter how well they were thrown. It was because of how the ball cut through the air. Muller found that the spin of the ball would naturally cause it to drift. However, the direction of drift constantly changed in a circular motion, allowing the ball to maintain a steady little wobble – subtle, even when thrown perfectly.
You’ll have to check out the video on the Veritasium channel for a better explanation. Even Brady said he could understand it eventually.
“I can visualize it all, your fancy science words,” the former quarterback said. “I’m going all the way back to my high school days. I was a very average science student. But you’re teaching me a lot.”