The Biggest Misconception in Football (ft. Tom Brady)

About this video

Even the GOAT Tom Brady can’t throw a perfect spiral. Here’s why. 🌏 Get exclusive NordVPN deal here ➵ https://NordVPN.com/veritasium It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!✌ If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV Sign up to the Veritasium newsletter for weekly science updates - https://ve42.co/Newsletter ▀▀▀ Thank you so much to everyone who voted for this video to win the people's voice awards for best creator-to-creator collaboration at the 2026 Webby Awards. We couldn't have done it without you. Thank you again for all your support! A huge thank you to Tom Brady for coming and throwing some footballs with us and letting us analyse his throw. You can check out his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@tombrady Also thank you to Kevin Bonner and the team at Shadow Lion for helping make this happen! A big thanks to Daniel Hare and Wilson for all their help collecting and analyzing the data. A massive thank you to Prof. Philip Ansell, David Attig, Matt Brotnow, Sam Hince and Derrick Wiberg at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for all their work testing out footballs in their wind tunnel (more of that to come in our second video). We’d also like to shout out Stewart Bible, Ryan Sayko and the rest of the team at Resolved Analytics for all their work on the CFD models - https://www.resolvedanalytics.com/ Thank you to Mike Lopez and Tom Bliss from the Football Data and Analytics at the NFL for sharing data and insights from across NFL history. We’re incredibly grateful to Prof. Richard Price and Major Brett Gibbons for their invaluable contributions to this video. Thank you to Prof. Chad Orzel, Prof. John Eric Goff, Dr Ainissa Ramirez, Prof. Tony Schmitz & Jonathan Ferguson for all their help on the project. Also thanks to Chris Anstis for his help as a stand-in QB! ▀▀▀ 0:00 How Tom Brady Throws a Football 2:51 Why do you spin a football to throw it? 5:36 How does rifling affect a projectile? 9:09 The Turnover Paradox 11:15 How fast can Tom Brady throw? 14:31 Analysing Brady’s Throw 16:38 Gyroscopic Procession 19:47 It’s impossible to throw straight 23:17 Outdoor vs Dome Stadiums 24:31 Why Tom Brady is the GOAT ▀▀▀ References: References can be found here - https://ve42.co/BradyReferences Images & Video: Image and video references can be found here - https://ve42.co/BradyVisuals ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, armedtoe, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Charles Ian Norman Venn, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, iRick, Jeromy Johnson, Jon Jamison, JT, Juan Benet, Keith England, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Robert Oliveira, Sam Lutfi, Tj Steyn, TTST, Ubiquity Ventures, wolfee ▀▀▀ Producer & Director: Henry van Dyck Writing: Henry van Dyck & Derek Muller Editor: Trenton Oliver Animators: Mike Radjabov & Fabio Albetelli Illustrator: Jakub Misiek Researchers: Emilia Gyles & Gabe Strong Field Producer: Katy Savage Camera Operators: John Nicholls, Trenton Oliver, Melkwych Pierre-Louis & Scott Wellington Drone Operators: Nathan Taupez Scinto, Angelo Fiorini Sound Recordist: Vlady Garcia Production Assistant: Leah Jiji Media Manager: Gabriel C. Rodriguez Assistant Editor: James Stuart Thumbnail Designers: Ren Hurley & Ben Powell Production Team: Josh Pitt, Rob Beasley Spence, Tori Brittain & Barbara Abraul Executive Producers: Derek Muller & Zoe Heron Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images Music from Epidemic Sound