Julian Edelman didn’t go undrafted when he entered the league in 2009, but he was darn close. Selected 232nd overall by the New England Patriots in the seventh round, the Kent State quarterback had no guarantee of making the roster. He saw limited playing time during his first four years but worked tirelessly on special teams and, eventually, became invaluable in the return game. He also made the most of every opportunity at wide receiver.
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However, as a seventh-round pick, Edelman wasn’t making much. Back then, the rookie minimum wasn’t what it is today, and he earned just under $1.9 million in total across his first four years in the league. Now, he wasn’t poor by regular standards, but he certainly was by NFL standards.
That meant that he was living in a whole other world from his teammate, Tom Brady. While Edelman was couch surfing to get by through his first few years in the league, Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, owned two massive mansions in the L.A. area. As Edelman recalled, Brady even had an extra house sitting empty at the time:
“[Tom Brady] lived in Brentwood like 10-15 years ago with Gisele, and they built this insane home. And they rented this other house off Mandeville. It was an unbelievable house too, probably like a $15 million home. And his assistant, Ben, lived in the house because they had finished the house, but they still had a year lease on the other house. And I was couch-surfing when I first got in the league.”
Edelman moved to the affluent neighborhood of Brentwood to be closer to QB Tom Brady so that he could throw with him and build chemistry. What Brady didn’t know was that he wasn’t just providing Edelman with a chance on the football field. He was also providing him with lodging.
“I was living in Marina Del Rey, because I moved out here to be around him to throw with him. You know, at that time, he really wasn’t calling me. So [Ben] Rawitz, we were friends, and he goes, ‘Yo, come live in Brady’s other house with me, just don’t tell him you’re here,'” Edelman went on to recall.
“And that house was on the way to the other house, so like, he would come in, and I’d have to, like hide. And I just had a lot of great memories.”
The fact that Edelman had the nerve to live on Brady’s dime right under his nose is both hilarious and surprising. While Edelman and Brady grew close later in their careers, the young receiver was initially “terrified” of the ultra-competitive Brady.
For the California native, going from being a huge fan of Brady as a kid to becoming his teammate must have been quite a surreal experience.
“Yeah, I was terrified. The first time I met him, he walked in, and back then, we didn’t have iPads. We had the six-inch binder book. And I have my playbook and I’m running to be five minutes early for a meeting because you’re terrified of everything. It’s my first day there. And Brady walks in through the doors, and I literally almost dropped my book. And he goes, ‘Hey, Julian. Tom here.'”
Julian Edelman took a while, but eventually he ingratiated himself to Brady. So much so, in fact, that Edelman finished as Brady’s third favorite receiver in terms of touchdown connections. He sits behind teammate and now podcast co-host Rob Gronkowski (90) and the great Randy Moss (39) with 36 TD catches off the arm of the GOAT.
