It takes a certain amount of confidence and connections to pose in a photo with Tom Brady and caption the photo: THAT’S MY BEST FRIEND,” writes Mike Jensen for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

But that’s what Villanova girls’ basketball guard Bella Runyan did. She posed with him at halftime during a game between the Eagles and Tampa Bay at Lincoln Financial Field.

Runyan was down on the field for that game because her father, former Eagles Pro-Bowl offensive tackle Jon Runyan, was being inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame.

“It was my mom,’’ Bella Runyan said. “If anyone knows my mom, she has guts. She doesn’t care. She walked right up to him, ‘I’m Loretta Runyan, Jon’s wife, can you please get a picture with my daughter?’

Brady had been having a catch, warming up, at the time.

Bella is a 5-foot-11 guard on Villanova’s team and a sophomore at the university.  She was the team’s defensive player of the year in her freshman year.

“We try to put her on the best player on the other team, their guards,” said Villanova forward Brianna Herlihy.

“Defensively, she’s like a little gnat. She plays so hard, it’s contagious,” added forward Maddy Seigrist.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer about Bella Runyan.

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Check out Bella Runyan’s interview when she was a guest on Mike Recinto’s July 2020 podcast.