Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick detailed the stressful moments leading up to the team trading for star receiver Randy Moss in 2007.
Belichick joined The Pat McAfee Show Draft Spectacular for the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday. In additional providing analysis for the draft picks, he shared a variety of stories spanning the half century he’s been coaching in the NFL.
One of the more fascinating stories was the process behind trading for Moss during the 2007 NFL Draft. Not only did Belichick and the organization have to readjust his contract, but they also had to convince Moss that it wasn’t a prank.
“We’d been trying to trade for Randy Moss for two months, literally,” Belichick said. “This was like childbirth. I mean, it took forever. So, after the first day of the draft, I talked to [Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis] and I said, ‘Well, are we gonna make this deal or not?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it. We’ll do it for your fourth [round pick].’ And I think we were picking like seventh in the fourth round.’
Unfortunately for the Patriots, getting Moss on the team would prove to be much more difficult. As Belichick noted, the team had to bring him in for a physical as soon as possible and renegotiate his contract.
“And Mr. Davis said, ‘Well, that’s your problem,’” Belichick said. “‘You wanna trade for him? Then you get it done.’”
After the call with Davis, Belichick called Moss to fill him in on the situation.
“I call up Randy and said, ‘Randy, this is Coach Belichick,’” he said. “Boom, hangs up the phone. I’m like, ‘Let me try this again.’ ‘Randy, it’s Coach Belichick.’ [Randy said], ‘Who is this? Who’s pranking me? Who is this?’ Boom, hangs up the phone. ‘Randy, this is Coach Belichick. We traded for you.’ [Randy said], ‘What? Is this a joke? This better not be a joke! Who is this?’”
When Belichick finally convinced Moss that it was real, he informed him that he had to be in Foxborough, Massachusetts, by noon the next day to do the physical and restructure the deal. At the time of the call, it was nearly midnight after the first round of the draft.
Despite being in Houston when Belichick called him, Moss was at the team facility by 8 a.m.
Watch above via The Pat McAfee Show.
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