Getty Image / ANGELA WEISS / AFP / IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Tom Brady delivered the commencement address to the 2026 graduates of Georgetown University over the weekend. It came as no surprise to anyone that the most successful NFL player in history is also a great orator.
During his Georgetown, Tom Brady couldn’t help but slip in a few shots at his former head coach Bill Belichick who is off at UNC these days. Brady wasn’t cruel to Belichick by any stretch of the imagination but he had used Bill as joke fodder for sure.
Tom Brady’s Georgetown University Commencement Speech
For those who might’ve missed it, last week I ranked the 23 greatest graduation speeches in history. I’m not sure that we are quite ready to add Tom Brady to the rankings yet as it happened just a few days ago and we need to assess the cultural impact a little more first but Brady still crushed it.
Here is the full Class of ’26 Georgetown University commencement speech with the Bill Belichick quotes below:
Early in in his Georgetown commencement speech after being introduced, Tom Brady joked “I don’t do well with compliments,. I had a coach for 20 years tell me how s—– I was every day.” It is kind of hard to fathom Bill Belichick berating Tom Brady at practice for being subpar given all that we know now. Brady left the Pats and won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Belichick was basically ousted from the NFL after lackluster results, couldn’t get hired anywhere else, and has a dismal 4-8 (.333) record as head coach of the UNC Tarheels.
Later in his Georgetown commencement speech, Tom Brady appealed to emotion. He told the graduates “I want you to challenge yourself with ideas that are uncomfortable and people who push you to be your very best. Even if one of those people is a cranky old coach who cuts the sleeves off his sweatshirt and screams at you all day, do your job. Okay, that’s too specific in my experience. You guys get the point.” Here is that final quote from Brady about Belichick:
Today, Tom Brady (@tombrady), the seven-time Super Bowl champion and lead analyst for Fox Sports’ NFL coverage (@NFLLegacy), spoke to undergraduate students in Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business (@msbgu). #Hoyas2026
Cover image by Elman Studio. pic.twitter.com/JPPLdsx6LI
— Georgetown University (@Georgetown) May 16, 2026
Boom, roasted.
It is worth mentioning that Brady’s commencement speech was timed around him walking the catwalk as a model for Gucci, which led to a ton of memes. Frankly, I thought he looked great. I don’t see what everyone was hating on.