Tom Martinez: QB Coach Remembered for More Than Being Tom Brady's Mentor

Tom Martinez passed away on Tuesday. It was his 67th Birthday.

While most of the sports world knows him for being Tom Brady's coach and mentor, Martinez was so much more than that. 

According to the San Mateo Daily Journal, Martinez's wife, Olivia, said her husband suffered a heart attack around 1 p.m. when he was getting a dialysis treatment. 

Brady told the Associated Press that "[Martinez has] been a great friend of mine for a long time." 

In the national public eye, Martinez is known for being the longtime coach of the New England Patriots quarterback. 

However, he also coached multiple sports for the College of San Mateo, and it wasn't just Brady who he helped for many years. 

Originally hired to coach football and teach physical education, Martinez decided to coach softball and women's basketball for the college as well. A guy coaching three sports at once is something unheard of, especially at the college level.

Sure, it's a smaller college, but that's a heavy workload no matter what level of talent you're coaching. 

Former CSM athletic director Gary Dilley told the San Mateo Daily Journal that Martinez helped so many people. 

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He really was the representation of Bulldog athletics. It’s great [Martinez] made such a great contribution to Tom Brady, but really the mark he made was in the hearts he trained and coached at CSM.

There are going to be dozens, if not hundreds, of women he coached in softball and basketball (who will be sad by his passing). They were given the same kind of expectations he gave to his football players and he would accept nothing less from their efforts.

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Also according to the report, Martinez was named to the Hall of Fame in  "San Mateo County, Daly City, San Francisco State University, the California Community College Softball Association and the California Community College Women’s Basketball Association." 

In addition to Brady, Martinez helped JaMarcus Russell prior to being selected No. 1 overall, as well as Matt Cassell, Ricky Stanzi and other NFL quarterbacks. 

When you hear about Martinez, Brady's name usually comes up. However, he was a mentor to several other athletes, and that is how he should be remembered.