The War of 1812: Draft

Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning

     Sunday is a historic day. It is a historic day for NFL fans for all teams because for the 14^th time, we get to see two of the absolute greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. Every single play, other than special teams, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning will be on the field. Football fans need to embrace this, because with both quarterbacks closer to the end than the beginning, we don’t know how much more we will get to see of this. Let’s examine the two quarterbacks:

     These are two elite pocket passers who are extremely smart and accurate but they have many differences.

Draft:

     It starts back from their college days where Manning was a highly touted athlete and son of long time New Orleans Saints quarterback, playing at Tennessee and was going to be one of the top two picks in the 1998 draft. The Colts had the first pick and desperately needed a quarterback and took Manning, one of the best of all time, leaving the San Diego Chargers to take Ryan Leaf, one of the biggest busts of all time.  During the draft process, the Colts brought in Peyton for an interview. Very quickly, as said by then-Colts executive Bill Polian, Peyton flipped the script. He started asking them questions and was eager to know how everything would be in Indianapolis. As the draft crept closer, the Colts had one final talk with Manning and in that, he asked whether they were going to draft him or not. Polian told Manning he would let him know and Manning told him “If you pick me, I guarantee you that we will win a championship and we’ll have a great program here. If you don’t, I’ll come back and kick your butt.” In a smart move, the Colts selected Manning with the top pick and after a rocky first season the team flourished.

     For Brady, the draft story was much different. Brady did not come from any football royalty and was the quarterback at Michigan, yet they had tried to incorporate Drew Henson in his place. As Bill Belichick said, this raised some “red flags around Tom.” Another factor was that the Patriots had their franchise quarterback in Drew Bledsoe and had locked him up to a multi-million dollar contract. There was no talk of Brady being a top pick, but he was led to believe he would be around a 3^rd to 4^th round pick. However, every team kept on passing him until the Patriots took him at pick 199 in the 6^th round. Even then, the Patriots just took him because his value was the highest, even though they did not need a quarterback. Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger, and Spergon Wynn were all quarterbacks picked ahead of Brady in that draft. Like Manning, Brady also had some memorable words during that time, though his came after his draft. Owner Robert Kraft approached him one day in practice and Brady confidentially said that picking him “was the best decision that this organization had ever made.” Brady did not play his first season, but was thrust into the starting quarterback role in the third game of his second season, ironically against Manning and the Colts, in which he won 44-13, had immediate success and never looked back.