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Julian Edelman retired through the 2021 offseason after 12 NFL seasons, all of them with the New England Patriots. However he had alternatives to affix no less than two different groups — and strongly thought-about certainly one of them. Becoming a member of Peyton and Eli Manning on their “Monday Evening Soccer” broadcast to shut Week 11, the previous Tremendous Bowl MVP stated Tom Brady tried to recruit him to the Buccaneers as quickly as he relocated to Tampa Bay in 2020. Seven years earlier, Edelman added, he got here near becoming a member of Eli with the Giants, however finally determined to stay with the Patriots at some stage in his profession.
“(Tom) hit me up the primary day he signed there, like, ‘You wanna come down?'” Edelman stated of a possible reunion with Brady and Rob Gronkowski in Tampa Bay. “I used to be like, ‘Completely not.'”
Edelman was technically nonetheless beneath contract with the Patriots when Brady left New England for sunnier pastures, however 2020 proved to be his ultimate season with the Pats. He was, nevertheless, an official free agent again in 2013, when he flirted with the Giants earlier than re-signing with New England on a one-year deal.
“It was fairly shut,” Edelman advised the Manning brothers. “I went and visited down there in Jersey and met with (Tom) Coughlin and had nothing however respect for the group … however I checked out my decisions of going again to the Pats … (and) Peyton, thanks for taking (Wes) Welker off our palms … and the remaining is historical past. You guys are saying, ‘As soon as a Big, at all times a Big.’ Nicely, ‘Virtually a Big, at all times a Patriot.'”
That is not all Edelman needed to say throughout his “Monday Evening Soccer” go to. He additionally revealed that one other workforce, the Steelers, eyeballed him through the pre-draft course of in 2009, when the Patriots made him a seventh-round decide. The catch? They labored him out as a defensive participant, regardless of Edelman taking part in quarterback at Kent State.
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