A dusty old playbook, a backup punter, and a secret NFL algorithm. Sounds like the plot of a Moneyball sequel, but hey, this isn’t fiction—it’s the absurd, Jets-infused origin story of Tom Brady’s drafting. Two decades before Brady became a seven-ringed legend, the Patriots’ sixth-round Hail Mary hinged on a butterfly effect involving… check notes… a punter named Tom Tupa? Buckle up, folks. This tale is full of twists and turns.

As per sports journalist Pablo Torre, an NFL executive confirmed the Jets’ accidental role in gifting New England the 199th pick—the golden ticket that landed Brady. Let’s break it down like a halftime chalkboard.

In 2000, the Patriots snagged Brady with a compensatory pick. These picks are awarded based on a “secret formula” weighing free-agent losses. There you have Tom Tupa, Belichick’s Swiss Army knife from his Cleveland days—part punter, part trick-play QB. When Tupa bolted to the Jets in 1999, the Pats got a sixth-round comp pick. Why?

Because the league’s hidden math deemed Tupa’s $6M Jets deal just valuable enough. “I confirmed it with the league office itself, the NFL confirmed it. I confirmed it through a voice-modulated NFL executive who explained how all of this stuff works… And so you may or may not be hardened to learn that on levels that blew my mind, your New York Jets are entirely responsible for why Tom Brady even got picked by the Patriots,” revealed Pablo Torre on the Rich Eisen Show. “There are levels to this story that I could not have scripted, and it all rebounds, and I will, do a brief spoiler alert here, to a gentleman named Tom Tupa.”

“The man who first ever scored a two-point conversion with Cleveland for Bill Belichick, who you may recall went on to work for your Jets, who recruited at every stop, Tom Tupa. Who then in signing Tom Tupa to the Jets, I mean, I don’t want to spend all day reliving the episode, but in ways that cannot be scripted, Tom remember when Tom Tupa came in relief as quarterback for your Jets—A kind of obscure thing in the year before Bill Belichick was named was name coach and then departed.”

“In relief of Vinny Testaverde, in came Tom Tupa. That game it’s one of those stories where the performance on the field as well as the decision to let him go and then get resigned by Bill Belichick later at every stop ended up resulting in the pick that became Tom Brady.”

“In the story of Tom Tupa becoming Tom Brady, it’s just laughing in your face.” That’s not all. The Jets made a blunder in the 2000 Draft as well.

Long after the Jets had used the third of their record four first-round picks to select Chad Pennington, one veteran scout was so convinced about a particular player that he nearly stood on a table, passionately calling out his name to general manager Bill Parcells. Surprise, surprise, that player was Tom Brady.

Scout Kaye was in awe of Brady, who had thrown for 369 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-34 overtime victory over Alabama in the Orange Bowl—the final game of his college career—but he was unable to persuade Parcells. However, that was history, as the Pats finally got him. But the real drama? Brady and Belichick’s collision course was already loading.

Brady vs. Belichick: The “tension” that built a legacy!

Fast-forward to 2020: Brady’s exit from New England wasn’t just about aging arms or warmer Florida winters. In the March 24 post of his 199 newsletter, Brady admitted that, “had developed between where Coach Belichick and I were headed in our careers.” Translation: Two legends outgrowing their playbook.

Brady prioritized skill players and family. “I asked myself, as someone headed into their forties with school-age kids and twenty years worth of battle scars, what truly mattered to me now?” he wrote. “The presence of skill players was a 3 in terms of importance, for example, and the Bucs graded out as a 3 because of guys like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.” Hence, Tampa scored higher than Foxborough on his 20-point checklist.

“It’s not much more complicated than that,” he revealed. Reportedly, tensions between Brady, Belichick, and the Patriots began when the former quarterback requested a two-year, $50 million contract after the 2019-2020 season. An offer the Patriots refused. As a result, Brady entered free agency and later signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for that exact amount in March 2020.

But, undoubtedly, Brady’s drafting wasn’t luck. It was a perfect storm of Belichick’s grind, Tupa’s versatility, and the NFL’s arcane comp-pick alchemy. What do you think?