LISTEN - Patriots Release Tom Brady Draft Call: 'Foot in the Door'

The New England Patriots unveiled the audio from the most fateful telephone call in franchise history.

The New England Patriots and the rest of their NFL brethren are one week away from taking their first steps on a Tom Brady-free gridiron.

Brady will still have a looming prescience over the Patriots: not only is the team still attempting to fill the starting quarterback void he left behind in 2020 on a more structured, long-term basis but the team is set to honor his Foxborough career during its Week 1 contest against the Philadelphia Eagles (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS).

In anticipation of his honorary return to Gillette Stadium, the Patriots released the media conference call from the 2000 draft that sealed Brady's New England fate. In those selections, Brady was chosen as the 199th overall pick and that moment is now available for fans to cherish.

The first phone call with our 199th pick in the 2000 NFL Draft…

…the rest is history, @TomBrady. pic.twitter.com/LQ4bGP4Uji

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 31, 2023

The call features plenty of traits that would go on to become commonplace in Brady's legendary career: from the get-go, for example, Brady showcases the sense of competitiveness that would go on to define his NFL days, revealing it upon being informed he'll start his career behind Drew Bledsoe and Michael Bishop.

'All's I was looking for was a place to get my foot in the door and try to be great for the team that picked me," Brady said in his debut statements as a New Englander. "You know, Drew Bledsoe is certainly one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and it's going to be great to learn under him and compete for a job with the Patriots.

"I think that the team picked me to come in there and go out there and be a team player and fight every day, and that's really what I plan to do," Brady continued. "I've always really concerned myself with the things I can do and I don't put a whole lot of thinking into the other guys because I know that I'm not really at my best when I'm not controlling and playing as well as I possibly can."

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Brady actually wound up beginning the year as New England's fourth quarterback. also behind John Friesz. He ended his as the No. 2, standing behind by the end of the year. In the midst of a 5-11 season, which was also Bill Belichick's first with the Patriots' top headset. A Bledsoe injury in September 2001 afforded him a chance in the top slot and the rest was literally history to the tune of six Super Bowls (five in New England) and countless franchise and NFL records. 

Fresh out of Michigan, Brady also shuts down several concerns around his NFL arrival, including his size, the fact he shared top passing duties in Ann Arbor, and his potential baseball career (having been chosen by the Montreal Expos in the 1995 MLB Draft. 

Disappointment could've reigned on Brady's end through several factors: in addition to the crowded New England quarterback room and the Patriots' relatively downtrodden state, some felt he could've gone long before the 199th selection, he was the seventh quarterback chosen behind Chad Pennington (NY Jets), Giovanni Carmazzi (San Francisco), Chris Redman (Baltimore), Tee Martin (Pittsburgh), Marc Bulger (New Orleans), and Spergon Wynn (Cleveland). 

The future Hall-of-Famer, however, welcomed the New England challenge, one whose bestowment leaves countless Foxborough fans grateful. 

"This is a great step for me," Brady notes. "It's going to be a great challenge, but I think I'm ready for it. Actually, I know I'm ready for it."

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