Dick Rehbein’s legacy lives on 25 years after the Patriots drafted Tom Brady

The Patriots made an NFL-altering decision on April 16, 2000, thanks in part due to their former quarterbacks coach.

On April 16, 2000, the New England Patriots made the decision to draft a quarterback. The 199th overall selection in the sixth round was subsequently invested in a fairly unathletic passer out of Michigan whose grip on the Wolverines’ starting job had been anything but firm.

It turned out to be the best draft decision in NFL history.

Tom Brady’s accomplishments as quarterback of the Patriots (and later of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) are well-documented. When he joined New England on the second day of the 2000 draft, however, the greatest and most decorated player the league has ever seen was little more than an afterthought.

According to the Boston Globe’s April 17 edition, Brady was projected as a “pocket passer who will compete for a practice squad spot” whose selection “should not affect backup quarterbacks John Friesz or Michael Bishop.” He simply was not a headline name coming to town, and a prospect whose long-term outlook with the team was unclear as a result of that.

The fact that Brady had joined New England in the first place had plenty to do with himself as a prospect, with head coach Bill Belichick being willing to invest in the most important position on the field, and with personnel executive Bobby Grier doing research on the Michigan product. However, the pick still might not have happened without the lobbying of Patriots quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein.

A former offensive lineman in college, Rehbein entered the coaching profession with the Green Bay Packers in the late 70s. Over the next two decades, he coached special teams, wide receivers and tight ends, worked with offensive linemen, and was even an assistant offensive coordinator in Minnesota for three seasons.

In 2000, after having spent the previous eight years with the New York Giants, Rehbein joined forces with another former Giants assistant; Bill Belichick hired him as his quarterbacks coach. Reuniting with a former colleague of his, Charlie Weis, Rehbein was in charge of overseeing a QB room headed by $100 million man Drew Bledsoe.

Despite Bledsoe already a franchise legend at that point and seemingly in no danger of being replaced, Belichick decided in the lead-up to the 2000 draft to send Rehbein to personally scout a pair of quarterbacks. One was Louisiana Tech’s Tim Rattay, an eventual seventh-round pick who started 18 games over his eight-year career.

The other, of course, was Tom Brady.

“Before the 2000 draft, we sent Dick to see two guys,” Belichick said during the 2001 season, after Brady had replaced Bledsoe as the Patriots’ starting quarterback.

“He came back and we said, ‘Which guy are we going to take?’ He said, ‘Brady, this is the guy.’ Dick was the strength behind the recommendation and developing him. Tom Brady didn’t wake up one day and become a great quarterback.”

Rehbein had an active hand in guiding Brady to New England, and was responsible for his development early on in his career. That development happened mostly behind the scenes in 2000.

Nonetheless, he did make the roster as a rookie. Occupying what Belichick later referred to as a “wasted roster spot” he spent his first year as a pro behind the likes of Bledose, Friesz and Bishop. Brady appeared in one game in 2000, going 1-for-3 as a passer for 6 yards.

Despite the modest statistical output in Year 1, he was on a clear upward trajectory. Rehbein saw it, as did Belichick. However, the assistant coach would never get to witness his pupil taking the next step in his development.

An avid runner, Rehbein had been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, in 1988. He wore an electric pacemaker as a result, which allowed him to continue living a normal NFL assistant coach’s life.

However, in August 2001, during Brady’s second training camp with the Patriots, Rehbein lost consciousness while on a treadmill. He was moved to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he underwent a stress test on the morning of August 6. He passed out again, and this time doctors were unable to revive him.

Rehbein was 45 years old.

Exactly six months after Rehbein’s passing, the Patriots celebrated their first Super Bowl parade. It would not have happened without his former quarterback making a massive leap, first winning the No. 2 spot on the depth chart and later replacing Bledsoe as the starter.

Brady’s legacy knows no equal in the NFL, but it will forever be tied to the man who visited Ann Arbor in the spring of 2000. 25 years later, Dick Rehbein’s recommendation and the Patriots’ subsequent decision to draft Brady remains cemented as a pivotal moment in NFL history.