Rich Gannon shares incredible story behind why Patriots traded him originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Rich Gannon might be best known in New England as the quarterback for the Oakland Raiders team that fell to the Patriots in the 2001 AFC Divisional Round, aka the “Tuck Rule Game.”
But the former NFL MVP actually began his professional career with the Patriots.
That’s right: New England selected Gannon — a record-setting quarterback at the University of Delaware — in the fourth round (98th overall) of the 1987 NFL Draft. But the Patriots ended up trading Gannon six days later to the Minnesota Vikings for a pair of draft picks in a move that seems head-scratching in hindsight.
So, what prompted Gannon’s trade? The retired QB joined 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Zolak & Bertrand on Monday from Super Bowl Radio Row in New Orleans to share his side of the wild story.
“I went to the (NFL) Combine in 1987 and I worked out for a number of teams. The one team I didn’t work out for was the Patriots,” Gannon said, as seen in the video player above.
“And of course, the night of the draft, I get a call from Dick Steinberg, who’s the general manager at the time, and Raymond Berry, the head coach of the Patriots, said, ‘Hey, congratulations. We’re excited to draft you in the fourth round, and we just want to find the best position for you.’
“I’m sitting there on the phone and I went (drops phone), ‘Wait, what? Are you serious? I’m a quarterback! I’m not a defensive back! I’m not a running back!'”
Gannon was so put off by the Patriots suggesting they’d like him to play another position in New England that he spoke to his agent and requested a trade. The rest, as they say, is history.
“I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna go to training camp and try to learn a different position and not make the team and be one of those guys who’s the last cut, then come back the next year and (be) the last cut,'” Gannon said. “I’m like, ‘You know what, forget that.’
“So, I talked to my agent and said, ‘I’m not gonna go (to New England).’ Six days later, they traded me to the Minnesota Vikings.”
Looking back nearly 40 years later, it seems baffling why the Patriots would want Gannon to play another position. New England entered the 1987 season with a 34-year-old Steve Grogan and Tony Eason atop its QB depth chart and would go through a handful of quarterbacks over the next six seasons before finally landing Drew Bledsoe in 1993.
It took a while for Grogan to prove the Patriots wrong, however. He didn’t earn the Vikings’ starting QB job until his fourth NFL season and didn’t make his first Pro Bowl until 1999, his 12th season in the league. But he ended up earning four Pro Bowl nods, two First-Team All-Pro honors and an NFL MVP award over 17 seasons — a resume the Patriots certainly would have taken in the late 1980s.
Then again, things eventually worked out for the Patriots, who reached a Super Bowl with Bledsoe at QB and then won six championships in an 18-year span with Tom Brady — the first of which came at Gannon’s expense.
