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At some point during training camp just ahead of the 2000 season, Robert Kraft became acquainted with one of the new quarterbacks on the Patriots’ roster. It was a skinny, unknown kid that the Pats had drafted just a few months earlier in the sixth round, 199th overall, out of the University of Michigan.
According to Kraft, the kid approached him and introduced himself.
“He said, ‘I’m Tom Brady’,” Kraft said in The Brady 6 documentary. “And I said ‘I know who you are, you’re our sixth round draft choice.’ And he said ‘that’s right, and I’m the best decision this organization as ever made.’”
At the time, Kraft most likely just nodded his head and didn’t think too much of it. Turns out, the 23-year-old Brady was right. That competitive edge has led him to win five Super Bowls, and incredibly, still be playing 18 years later at the soon-to-be age of 41. Not only was Brady the best decision the Patriots organization ever made. He was the best decision any football organization ever made.
One of the young quarterbacks entering the 2018 draft – Josh Rosen from UCLA – seems to have a similar kind of confidence and competitiveness. The only difference? Rosen is expected to be a first round pick, most likely in the top 10.
Here’s what Rosen said in a recent interview with ESPN’s Sam Alipour:
“I want to be great – in everything I do. As far as football, I always looked up to Kellen Moore of Boise State. I thought it was the coolest thing that he was the winningest QB of all time. I thought that was a cool word: winningest. So I want to be the winningest QB in NFL history. I want to win the most games and most championships. I’d say six titles, but if Tom Brady gets six, I’ll say seven.”
Is this an arrogant, cocky, egotistical thing to say? I don’t think so. I’d say it’s more of a confident thing to say. It almost seems like something a young Brady might’ve said back in the day.
One thing’s for sure though. Rosen is definitely shooting for the stars with a statement like that – not that that’s a bad thing.