Sean Payton has plenty of stories ranging from his decorated 25 years of coaching in the NFL, from his recruitment of Tony Romo to the Dallas Cowboys (same alma mater) to his experience as an assistant under Ray Rhodes, Jim Fassel, and Bill Parcells before taking the New Orleans Saints job in 2006 -- and eventually winning the franchise a Super Bowl.
When Payton was with the New York Giants, he was in his first year as offensive coordinator before being asked a favor from his agent. Explaining on the Green Light Podcast with Chris Long, Payton was asked by his agent to speak to a client he just signed.
The client? Tom Brady.
"All right, so I'm in New York and my agent is Don Yee, and Don also represents Tom Brady," Payton said, via Yahoo! Sports. "Don would periodically call me with a client that he just signed, and he said, 'Hey will you call up Tom Brady? He's at Michigan and I've got him, and just help him out with things that would be important for him at the combine.'
"Basically, I remember it being a half an hour phone call on what's important. Make a good impression, be prepared to answer some football questions. The interviews were much more informal at that time."
Payton didn't have enough pull in the Giants front office to actually convince the team to draft Brady, grading him as a late third or early fourth-round player. Longtime scout Raymond "Whitey" Walsh Jr. also banged the door for the Giants to draft Brady, but he didn't have much fanfare in the room either.
"We were (scouting) Brady, now this is going around the room and everyone's seen Tom run the 40 at the combine. Everyone's seen, you know, you get the body, weigh in pictures, all of that," Payton said. "So, you have a guy who is not fully developed yet who was pretty much a one-year starter. You could tell that he needs the weight room. But Lloyd Carr (Michigan head coach) said this, I'll never forget it, he said he's the toughest player that he's ever coached. That meant something."
The Giants didn't draft Brady, passing on him in favor of Ron Dayne, Cornelius Griffin, Ron Dixon, Brandon Short, Ralph Brown, and Dhani Jones. Five of those players played seven years in the league, so it wasn't a total loss for the Giants.
New York had Kerry Collins at quarterback, who was starting his run at the comeback player of the year candidacy with the Giants. Collins led the Giants to Super Bowl XXXV in 2000, but that was the peak of his tenure with the franchise -- even if he revitalized his NFL career in New York.
The Giants backup quarterback was 34-year-old Jason Garrett, so there was room to add a backup like Brady (Garrett retired after the 2000 season). What could have been if the Giants braintrust listened to a young, yet unproven Payton.
