Julian Edelman gets candid on struggling to win Tom Brady’s trust with Patriots - “Took me years”
Julian Edelman helped play a crucial role in Tom Brady's pursuit for greatness with the New England Patriots. Together they won three Super Bowls, with the wide receiver taking some vital catches along the way. Many a times when Tom Brady needed to find someone open, Julian Edelman was the one he looked towards.
But it was not easy to win over the quarterback's trust. Even though the wide reciever would become an important cog in the New England juggernaut, they had won without him. By the time he had come there, the GOAT had already won the first three of his Super Bowls. He had been in the league for more than a decade.
So, when Julian Edelman joined, there was no margin of error for him. As he said:
“It took me years to gain his trust that was like the thing with Brady when you're a fu**ing technician that's been doing it at a high level for such a long time like he already had like 11 years in the league when I got there. He had three Super Bowls you know what I mean."
Julian Edelman describes Tom Brady's striking efficiency
Julian Edelman also added in the same breath that it was instructive seeing Tom Brady practice. The quarterback did not have time to go with one player and teach them the ins-and-outs. For them, every rep was an opportunity to try something and a pursuit of the fine-tuning that would win them matches.
Therefore, the wide receiver knew that even in practice he would have to get it just right at the first try. As a young player, he was certainly not the most comfortable in that role, as he said:
"When you're a guy like that you don't want to waste time, every rep is something to those guys. So, they want things done a certain way right away the way it needs to be done… As a young player and so it took me years to get comfortable.”
But it is fair to say that he did become comfortable and played vital roles in the New England Patriots' second half of the dynasty. Even though they had won three Lombardi Trophies with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, they had not won anything since the 2004 season when Julian Edelman joined. By the time the wide receiver left, they had won it three more times and established themselves as the most dominant team in the NFL.