The untold story of how Tom Brady was almost drafted by the NY Jets

The untold story of how Tom Brady was almost drafted by the NY Jets | NY Daily News

Very interesting. Salt in the wound for all J-E-T-S fans!






Already in the "Jets Suck Thread", but worthy of a new thread

WHOA WHOA WHOA!!! Dude, you can't just post links to stories and websites that depict Tom Brady in a Jets uniform without a warning first. I just woke up every sleeping soul in my house with my screaming and shrieking after seeing that. Not cool, man. Not cool.

Pretty decent article overall. If that Parcells had bought into that passionate scout's plea and picked Brady, who knows what would have happened. For Brady, probably not much; the Jets had already invested in Pennington in the first round. For TFB, probably no trophies, no MVPs, no Gisele.

If the Jets had taken Brady before the Patriots, he may never have become one of the two or three greatest QBs in NFL history. He found a perfect match in Belichick, and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis was the ideal tutor early in his career.

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It’s understandable why the Jets passed on Brady despite Kaye’s strong recommendation: They had Vinny Testaverde returning from a torn Achilles, they had just drafted Pennington and they also had Ray Lucas, a personal favorite of Parcells’. As competitive as Brady is, he still might not have received many practice reps or opportunities to play in the preseason.

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Even for someone as driven and talented as Brady, fate, luck — and the ability of those paid to assess you — all play a role. Personally, I'm pretty happy with the role it played in this case.

Rex would have found a way to f... it up.

It's kind of funny how Tuna Crap get's credited (by some here) with starting the Pats down the road of success, even though his big complaint was that he didn't get to pick the players. And now we find out that when he did get to pick the players, he stunk at that too.

What Tuna Crap was really good at was being able to pick the right spots to turn horrible teams around.
2-14 Pats, 1-15 Jets, 5-11 Cowboys and 1-15 Dolphins as GM. That strategy and keeping Bill Belichick and his defenses by his side as long as he could is what led to his success in turning teams around. Once he lost Belichick, Tuna was nothing special as either a HC or a GM

I have no doubt the Jets universal suckage would have ruined any potential HOF trace from a guy like Brady.

And while we're lucky to have Brady, he's fortunate to have fallen into the perfect spot for him. Being drafted so late wasn't what he planned, but he's used that chip on his shoulder throughout his career. Does it drive him as much if he was drafted in the 3rd? I don't know. He fell to the perfect team running the perfect system for him and with a coach who was willing to waste a roster spot on a 4th-string QB and 2nd-development QB.

I don't know that he would have replicated his success on any other team or under any other circumstances. It was like all the planets aligned just right for this to happen.

We got Belichick and Brady. Sucked in Jets.

That resume of his would have come in handy.

It's a wonder Revis made it through that suckage...

1960Pats said:

What Tuna Crap was really good at was ....

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Shopping for jobs.
People get on athletes like Revis who want to maximize dollars during their very small window of opportunity. Then there was the Tuna......a coach/GM that always wanted more. More control, more power, even ownership. One toe was always out the door waiting for the next billionaire owner to sweeten the pot. Years ago, I was told by a Parcell's associate that money became very important to him after his divorce and he viewed the NFL as a cash cow. If desperate owners with deep pockets wanted a piece of the Tuna magic...let the bidding begin. The cunning trophy wife that would cash in then trade up.

If you read the article, they didn't really come close to drafting him. They'd taken Pennington and they had Turnpike Vinnie and Ray Lucas as a back-ups. One scout mentioned Brady's name - whoop-de-doo. It happens in every draft room every year.

BritPat said:

If you read the article, they didn't really come close to drafting him. They'd taken Pennington and they had Turnpike Vinnie and Ray Lucas as a back-ups. One scout mentioned Brady's name - whoop-de-doo. It happens in every draft room every year.

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It is a stretch but what stands out is the alleged passion the scout allegedly showed:

It was late in the 2000 draft, many rounds after the Jets selected Chad Pennington with the third of their record four first-round picks, when one veteran scout in their draft room had such a conviction on a player he nearly stood on a table shouting his name to general manager Bill Parcells.

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I actually can't imagine any scout showing that much urgency over a sixth round pick.

I also thought this part was funny:

Parcells, whose lukewarm endorsement of Peyton Manning when the Jets had the No. 1 pick in the 1997 draft helped Manning decide to return to Tennessee for his senior year, said he doesn’t recall being lobbied to take Brady

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I'm sure there's several teams who almost drafted him

Even in a crappy photoshop, Brady looks extremely uncomfortable wearing that jersey.

Wonderful icing on the cake. They steal Parcells, and it turns into us getting Belichick. They have four first round picks, and get comfortable with their QB situation, and ignore an impassioned plea from a veteran scout to take Brady, leaving him to us. And then we end up with their best defensive player, ever.

The way I see it, even if the Jets had drafted Brady nothing would have changed. They would have cut him at the end of their 2000 training camp, the Patriots would then sign him, and the Pats still go on the have the same success - while the Jets would still the SOJ.

To me the more enlightening information is that Peyton Manning was so turned off by Bill Parcells that he decided to return to Tennessee rather than risk being drafted by the Jets. That's a history-changing decision that had a huge effect on not only the Jets, but also the Colts (they likely would have drafted Ryan Leaf), Manning (likely does not have the same career playing for the Jets), as well as Tom Brady and the Patriots.

As big as the Brady-Manning rivalry (and hype) has been, imagine what it would have been like if they played in the same division, faced each other at least twice every season - and Brady was a former Jet?

Imagine what a nightmare that would have been.

This reminds me of the time I almost won the biggest jackpot in Powerball history. Except I picked a different number instead....
What a bunch of BS! Leave it to Jests to make stuff up like it really happened.

mrbean said:

WHOA WHOA WHOA!!! Dude, you can't just post links to stories and websites that depict Tom Brady in a Jets uniform without a warning first. I just woke up every sleeping soul in my house with my screaming and shrieking after seeing that. Not cool, man. Not cool.

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I'm truly sorry for your pain, but you're just going to have to take one for the team in this case...I live in Manhattan and the impact of that picture on the psyche of Jests' fans is priceless. They'll be jumping out of windows on Wall Street like it's 1929 all over again!
Thank you for your sacrifice!!!

Id really love to read that scout's report on Brady.

Next you're going to tell me how they almost didn't waste first round picks on DeWayne Robertson, Vernon Gholston, Dustin Keller, Mark Sanchez, Kyle Wilson, and Dee Milliner.