Patriots: Jarrett Stidham Has an Unexpected Red Sox Connection

New England Patriots QB Jarrett Stidham has an old friend who’s beloved in Boston.

Jarrett Stidham has an impossible task ahead of him: get Patriot fans to forget about Tom Brady — or, at least, stop remembering him for three hours a week.

But if Stidham has any questions about how it feels to embrace your underdog status in Boston and succeed against the odds, he doesn’t have to ask any of his new teammates, nor does he have to call a Disney World concierge and ask to be patched into Marcus Smart’s room at the Gran Destino.

No, all he has to do is call up an old family friend: fellow Stephenville, TX native Brock Holt.

As NESN’s Rob Bradford uncovered, Holt’s high school baseball coach was Julio Jimenez, whose 14-year-old son Alex served as the team’s bat boy. The Jimenez family rewarded their son with a birthday gift to remember that year: a trip to Florida to watch Holt play minor-league baseball, as well as a dinner with their town’s venerated resident.

The Jimenez family picked a local budding QB to accompany them: Jimenez’s best friend Stidham, who went out to dinner with Holt, too, and made an impression on him that day.

Since that day, Holt’s career has changed quite a bit — he went from languishing Pirates minor leaguer to Sox cult hero from 2013-2019, making the ’15 All-Star team, and hitting for the cycle at Yankee Stadium during the 2018 postseason (that really happened). All that time, though, Holt followed the hometown kid during his Auburn career, and the strange confluence of their two careers has reared its head once more.

You may remember this bromance from back in the day, when Holt coerced Stidham into admitting that he was working out with Julian Edelman under the radar.

Though Holt is now a Milwaukee Brewer, it’s clear where his allegiances still lie, with another excuse to keep believing in Boston.

“I hope Jarrett gets a chance to prove what he can do. Shoot, I’m rooting for him,” Holt told Bradford. “It’s a good place to be, a good place to play. New England sports, Boston sports, it’s as good as it gets. I’m pumped for him and his career. I’m looking forward to watching what does.”