Posted on 12/15/2012 8:59:45 PM PST by techno
One innocuous event on the eve of the new century arguably changed the fate of so many NFL franchises so significantly that it may turn out to be most pivotal at the same time iconoclastic decision ever made in the entire half century or even for the full century in the NFL.
And that decision was that Michigan QB, Tom Brady was selected in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL draft, 199th overall, by the New England Patriots.
To this day many football fans wonder how every one of the 31 teams at the time (The Pats drafted six players ahead of Brady) could have been so stupid or blind to pass on Brady at least 5 times with 6 quarterbacks selected ahead of Brady.
Here from a perspective of hindsight is why I think it happened and the political overtones of why Brady was passed over so often in the 2000
Here are 10 reasons:
1)Tom Brady was apparently NOT on the radar of several teams and there is a good chance only a handful of teams sent scouts to Michigan to personally watch Brady perform.
And you might wonder why?
Some teams may have been satisfied with their quarterback situation. (Despite having Drew Bledsoe the Pats still drafted Brady.)
Some teams perenially draft for "need" over "position" and may have not been in the market for a QB.
And those looking to draft a QB may have set their sights on someone else.
But the question needs to be asked: How did the entire NFL get it so wrong regarding a player who now is considered one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history and in hindsight should have been drafted #1 overall? Aren't these folks in the "talent" business?
Politics is no different. You can't see the forest for the trees. Why is the GOP so slow to recognize emerging talent?
2)In the 1980's the NFL developed a scouting Combine where invited draftees would display their skills before scouts of all the teams who would then report back their findings to their bosses.
In sports as in politics there is a fraternity or brotherhood established among scouts or pundits and they tend to hang out in the same watering holes. They compare notes and I believe their consensus that Brady was not very good or athletic dominated the discussion and thus the majority of teams had little interest in pursuing Brady. The problem however with this group mentality is individuals who are not as convinced that Brady was no good might not want to air that sentiment in public for fear of ridicule and not want to file a report with their team that went against what most of the other scouts were filing with their teams.
In 2011, many conservative pundits reported that Sarah Palin could not beat Obama. That became the fact as few bloggers and pundits wanted to go on record to the contrary.
3)The 2000 NFL draft class was NOT considered a strong class for drafting quarterbacks. Only Chad Pennington was taken in the first round. The next QB wasn't taken until the 3rd round. Could the scouts have lumped all the QB's in the same category providing clubs another reason not to draft a QB in this draft?
4) Tom Brady had to share duties with Drew Henson in Michigan (at one time he was 7th on the depth chart). But when he did get an opportunity to start he didn't perform awful. In fact he led Michigan to an upset win over Alabama in the Orange Bowl by throwing for 369 yards and 4 TD passes. But obviously from where he was drafted the 31 teams at the time took little notice or gave it short shrift.
5)Tom Brady is one of the greatest decision-makers, most intelligent and accurate QB's in NFL history. And yes skills can be nurtured and developed but in Brady's own words he was always extremely accurate as a QB and most people would agree you are born with football intelligence and decision-making prowess. Why did the scouts miss this in Brady? Perhaps they weren't looking for it. It's like a young man is looking for his soulmate but doesn't realize she lives across from him. Were scouts so obsessed with what Brady couldn't do (run fast/lack of agility/average arm) that they totally missed the boat? In politics I think that is often the case where the GOP wants to follow a certain agenda but when a golden opportunity is presented to them to score a lot of political points, they simply drop the ball or aren't aware they had the ball in the first place.
Scouts also have a preconceived notion of what they are looking for. Tom Brady was not what they were looking for.
6)But in retrospect how did the scouts and the 31 teams get it so wrong? We're not talking here about the drafting of a second round pick who should have gone in the top 5 of the draft (eg Rob Gronkowski)but we're talking here of a player who should have gone #1 overall but 198 players were chosen over him. How could so many experts miss Brady's immense talent?
Could Brady's charisma and his leadership skills have been his undoing? Could the scouts have sensed that Brady had a mysterious quality that they could not pin down or could not quantify and thus found it difficult to properly evaluate him? And for that reason they deemed him persona non grata because they weren't comfortable recommending to their teams that he be selected.
Was Brady's passion for football genuine?
7)Too many scouts and teams refuse to think outside the box and don't countenance iconoclasm. They don't look for the diamond in the rough but the "proven commodity". To make Brady a high pick would have been completely out of the box. Most teams are too fearful of their fan bases and local sports fraternity to be so daring.
8)ESPN has a one-man draft wrecking crew on staff named Mel Kiper who rates every potential draftee and because of his cachet and the cachet others like Kiper boast, a lot of teams imho are hesitant to go too far out on a limb for fear of being made a laughingstock by these national experts. And thus who many teams select may be strongly influenced on who these pundits like.
By the way Bill Belichick and the Patriots are in the minority. They couldn't give a rat's ass what Kiper and his cohorts think. If they had, they wouldn't have drafted Brady who Kiper claimed would never make it in the NFL.
9)Imho too many teams and scouts are prisoners of the moment in terms of football cycles. For example we are now in my opinion in an age where scouts are now on the lookout for QB's who are good throwers but also mobile enough to make first downs with their legs. Examples are Andrew Luck and RGIII.
Thus Brady's "pocket style" is not in vogue right now. And it appears in 2000 it might not have been in vogue then either.
In 1999, Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith and Duante Culpepper were all drafted in the ist round, all mobile QB's. In 2000 it's possibe some teams were in the transition of changing their drafting philosophy regarding QB's.
And being perceived as "slower than normal" certainly didn't help Brady in this kind of environment.
10)And yes head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots did send QB coach Dick Rehbein to Michigan to specifically watch Brady practice in person and according to his widow Pam (Rehbein died in 2001), Dick was a huge Brady enthusiast and made every effort possible to convince the Patriot brain trust to draft him. In other words Rehbein saw the greatness in Brady when the rest of the NFL did not.
But despite that the facts are the Pats themselves waited until the 6th round to draft Brady and in so doing drafted 6 players ahead of him.
From ex GM Scott Pioli of the Patriots: "If we were so smart why did we wait until the 6th round to draft Brady?" Implied in that comment the only saving grace for the Pats was the other 30 teams were more stupid.
And I would put it to you that it is this same non-iconoclastic mentality that still dominates much of the NFL and that also dominates the GOP and even some elements in the conservative movement.
Tomorrow night Tom Brady again takes center stage, this time against a team, the San Francisco 49 ers, that he wanted to be chosen by because of his love for Joe Montana and growing up in the area. Instead the 49ers chose Giovanni Camozzi in the 3rd round. And the rest is history.
Why did all the teams in the NFL except for one miss on him? Perhaps in the same vein why was Mitt Romney chosen as the presidential standardbearer in 2012?
Nice analogy and analysis, good post.
Brady is average when a good defense plays against him. Ask the Giants.
Romney bought his way into the nomination and the GOPe rejected all of the other candidates.
Not all Michigan QB’s will be a Tom Brady in the NFL.
However, can’t remember the last Michigan QB that wasn’t drafted.
Wolverines:
Most total wins in college football, for over a century.
Highest winning percentage, for over a century.
Only Notre Dame is close.
And of course the Wolverines dwarf any other team or sport on attendence records as they possess the largest stadium in America.
(Some idiot NASCAR fan will show up and compare a multi-mile arena with a football stadium, so deal with it)
See the recent 60 Minutes piece largely focused on Michigan and Alabama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWMl0kbHqwU
Can’t spell elite without ELI! Go G-Men. Oh yeah, the Pat’s cheat.
Tom Brady for President! Seriously...out of the box...could he be any worse than the recent candidates?
Answer: NO
Good post, quantum. Michigan BUMP!...and we just became a “right-to-work” state! Heck, for that matter...Tom Brady for President, Rick Snyder (Michigan governor) for V.P. or vice versa.
His record proves otherwise.
Palin is having to fight both parties and the media, the same group that all pretty much agreed on Romney.
Romney just lost an election that couldn’t be lost, and his lack of any substance, and the lengths to which republicans had to change their positions to accommodate his hard liberalism, has seriously, perhaps permanently damaged the Republican brand.
Mitt Romney is the worst republican candidate in modern history, perhaps ever, the liberal Mormon Bishop, cult leader and very liberal, William Weld protege/governor of Massachusetts who gave us Romneycare and gay marriage, is without question, the bizarre choice in GOP history, how he came to be the choice to run against a man who he largely agreed with on the hot button issues, is one for historians to unravel, but it was a disaster for the republican party.
I have this dark fantasy - and maybe not so heretical that Michigan may once again save the nation and the world like she once did in the WWII days.
We have it all here except the Detroit/Flint corridor which is going Darwin anyway and in our lifetimes Detroit will kill itself off and Michigan shall rise like the pheonix from ashes.
A man can still dream.
And hey - Tom Monaghan going after Obamakare!
I repeat. Ask the Giants. :-)
Sorry, but the article is stupid.
Let’s look at how right the scouts were about Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, John Elway, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, and lately Andrew Luck, RG3, Brandon Weeden and to my disappointment, the scouts seem to be right about one of my favorites in Kellen Moore in that he is not NFL quality.
Norte Dame, USC, Ohio State
Then Michigan
http://www.sportsnola.com/sports/sports-blogs/rene-nadeau/586208-college-footballs-all-time-biggest-producers-of-nfl-talent.html
Sorry, couldn't resist. /a Buckeye
PS I am happy to see U of M getting better. Their slouch has hurt the Big 10. Also, nothing is sweeter than my Buckeyes beating a ranked U of M team!
But the Seahawks are pretty damn good at home this year against everyone.
How’s the right-to-work working for the Buckeye-head conglomeration of idiots in Ohio?
Wait, in OH you don’t have a RTW.
No matter, both OH & MI and throw in WI at a local level have it together as sister states, but throw in federal pie and Obama wins.
It’s that simple.
I repeat, look at his record. Only the 11th NFL quarterback to register 100 wins as a starter. There are plenty of teams that play good defense and Brady has beaten all of them at one time or another.
Tom Brady on the Buffalo Bills or Cleveland Browns of the 2000’s probably wouldn’t have had much success either.
He has talent and skill, but it took something outside of him, perhaps a good coach in Belichek, who knew how to use him, to make him stand out.
Let’s look at how right the scouts were about Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, John Elway, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, and lately Andrew Luck, RG3, Brandon Weeden....
Montana-- 3rd round. 82nd pick in the 1979 draft. Yeah, lots of scouts were right about him....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.