Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

HOUSTON — The respect between Jim Harbaugh and Tom Brady is mutual.

Hours after Harbaugh called Brady "the greatest football player to ever play" during Michigan's signing day event Wednesday, Brady expressed a deep admiration for the Wolverines football coach and program.

"I'd do anything to help the University of Michigan," Brady told reporters at Super Bowl LI. "He wants me to be involved and I love it. I don't know about quarterback coach, but words of wisdom to that quarterback group, I would love to do that."

Brady played football from 1995-99 and has gone on to have one of the most illustrious careers in NFL history.

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On Sunday, he'll start in his record seventh Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons and try to become the first quarterback in NFL history with five championship rings. Charles Haley is the only player currently with that many championships.

Harbaugh, a longtime NFL quarterback himself, brought Brady to Ann Arbor for last year's "Signing of the Stars" event and had him serve as an honorary captain for September game against Colorado while Brady was in the midst of serving a four-game suspension.

On Wednesday, Harbaugh said it would be "phenomenal" if Brady returned to the team as a coach in retirement, and even joked he'd step aside and coach quarterbacks so Brady could run the program.

"When you get compared to people, and certainly people that are my heroes, I don't ever see myself in that light and I've never envisioned those types of things," Brady said. "I love this sport. I admire all the guys who have played before me and I realize how hard it is. I grew up a fan of Joe (Montana) and Steve (Young) and Dan Marino and John Elway and Warren Moon and watched them all and loved watching football highlights and watching guys' techniques and drop backs and throws.

"I'm a fan of all those guys. They paved the way for us quarterbacks today and we're paving the way for the quarterbacks of the future, and I'm a hell of a lot older than most of the guys in the league now so there's a lot of guys who are probably looking at me like I used to look at them."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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