Weis reflects on Patriots QB Tom Brady with ESPN set to air 'The Brady 6' documentary
Monday, April 11, 2011 | Football, Men's Swimming & Diving, Scott Carter
Gators offensive coordinator Charlie Weis took a trip down memory lane on Monday.
With ESPN set to air “The Brady 6” on Tuesday night at 8 – an hour-long documentary about how NFL teams missed the mark on evaluating Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's pro potential – Weis talked about Brady on the ESPN College GameDay bus parked outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
In an interview that appeared on “First Take,'' Weis discussed how Patriots coach Bill Belichick and then-general manager Scott Pioli planned to take a quarterback on the second day of the draft. No one imagined that Brady would be the guy and have the career that he has had.
“I would like to say I was the one who found him, but Bill and Scott – they had actually sent Dick Rehbein, who was the quarterbacks coach at the time – on a project to go look for a second-day guy,'' Weis said. “That was the guy he came up with.''
Sadly, Rehbein passed away unexpectedly a little more than a year later and never got to see how successful Brady turned out. In a recent interview with Weis, he called Brady the favorite player he has ever coached.
The two formed a close bond when Weis had a health scare of his own in 2002.
The Patriots selected Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 draft with the 199th overall pick. Amazingly, six quarterbacks were selected ahead of Brady in that year's draft: Marshall's Chad Pennington, Hofstra's Giovanni Carmazzi, Louisville's Chris Redman, Tee Martin of Tennessee, West Virginia's Marc Bulger and Texas State's Spergen Wynn.
Needless to say, the pick has turned into one of the best in NFL history for the Patriots.
“The one thing that was great about Tommy, that once we did take him, his first year in the league, he was our fourth-string quarterback,'' Weis said. “Very few teams in the NFL keep four on the roster. We just felt he had too much upside. The second year in the league, and all of a sudden he had worked his way up to second the depth chart.
“Drew gets hurt and the rest is history.''
Weis just provided the answer to the Patriots' starter during Brady's rookie season: Drew Bledsoe.
Quick, can you name the two others in front of him? I couldn't.
John Friesz and Michael Bishop were the players Brady quickly moved past on the depth chart.
