Foxboro, Mass. — Tom Brady figured to wait a long time before becoming the Patriots' starting quarterback. Rich Gannon never got that chance after they drafted him.
Now the sudden standout and the late bloomer lead the way for New England and Oakland. The winner of the playoff game between those teams tonight when snow could limit the passing games gets a shot at the AFC championship.
Gannon is in his third season with the Raiders and 14th overall in the NFL. But when the Patriots took him in the fourth round of the draft out of Delaware, they wanted him to play wide receiver or defensive back.
"It was kind of ridiculous for someone to do that without even talking to me," he said. "I just felt like my chances of playing in the National Football League weren't very good if I wasn't going to play quarterback."
He said he would attend law school rather than switch positions and was traded to Minnesota less than two weeks after the 1987 draft. This season he was the AFC's leading passer and led the Raiders to a 38-24 playoff win over the New York Jets last weekend.
Brady, a sixth-round pick out of Michigan in 2000, spent that year as the fourth-stringer. He started this season as the No. 2 quarterback, but starter Drew Bledsoe was durable and entrenched at the position.
Then Bledsoe was hurt in the second game a hit by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis caused a serious chest injury and an untested Brady moved in.
He finished the season as the AFC's third-ranked passer and will join Gannon in the Pro Bowl.
"He's not an up-and-down guy," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "The word I would put with him would be 'consistency.' He's the same guy day to day. He makes the same type of decision on the field consistently. He runs the team with the same type of tempo, mannerisms."
The Patriots are 11-3 under Brady and he says he's ready for the playoffs, despite his inexperience 14 pro starts vs. Gannon's 14 seasons.
"Everything we've done so far has prepared us for this moment," Brady said.
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