Julian Edelman: “Frightening” meeting Tom Brady for the first time
Receiver Julian Edelman recounted the first time he met Patriots legend Tom Brady on Tuesday night’s episode of The Colbert Show.
Patriots offensive mainstays Julian Edelman and Tom Brady have been best buddies for so long it almost seems like they’ve always just been that way: joined at the hip since childbirth, growing up together playing little league games, college roommates, and now perfectly in-sync 99% of the time as teammates in New England’s highly-effective offensive scheme.
And yet, it was not always so.
Edelman has been doing the media and publicity circuit of late, promoting his upcoming sports documentary “100%” that will air on Showtime this Friday. He stopped by CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Tuesday to talk about the film, and along the way, he and Colbert began discussing his path to NFL stardom from humble beginnings.
It was a terrific interview, and yet another fascinating inside-look at the remarkable journey Edelman has been on since he entered the league as a seventh-round draft pick out of Kent State – where he played quarterback, not wide receiver.
Perhaps the highlight of their conversation came when Colbert asked Edelman what it was like meeting Tom Brady for the first time back in 2009. Brady’s friendliness and down-to-earth nature with new Patriots players is now pretty much common knowledge, even though it’s always interesting to hear how surprised those players are when they discover the future Hall of Famer doesn’t have an air of haughtiness or superiority about him.
Still, Edelman recounted with vivid clarity his first interaction with Brady… and it wasn’t exactly a pleasant one (for Edelman, at least):
"“The first time I met him was my rookie year, 2009. We just came in after rookie minicamps and when you’re a rookie you’re carrying around — back in that day, 10 years ago — you have a six-inch binder. Now everything is on iPads, but you’d run around with a six-inch binder, get to meetings 10 minutes early. Guys are strolling in, you know, the veterans, 30 seconds before. Like, they know what’s going on, but when you’re a rookie, you don’t know. I’m going into a meeting and right into the doorway Tom, like, runs into me and he goes ‘Hey, I’m Tom.’ I like almost drop my book and I’m like, ‘Hey, uh, nice to meet you, Tom. I’m Jules.’ He goes, ‘Hey, I heard a lot about you. Excited to have you on the team.’ It was definitely a frightening experience for me.”"
Next. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning: BFFs this whole time. dark
Fast-forward a decade later, and Edelman is now Brady’s favorite target and his go-to No. 1 receiver when the Patriots just gotta have that tough conversion. The two are like peanut butter and jelly these days, and their close bond and friendship (both on and off the field) will no doubt serve the New England offense well moving forward in the post-Gronkowski world.