April 16, 2000: Patriots select Tom Brady in NFL Draft with pick 199 overall

Without question, the biggest NFL Draft steal in league history happened 20 years ago Thursday when the New England Patriots took a chance on a Michigan quarterback named Tom Brady with the No. 199 selection overall. Brady will go down at the GOAT whenever he retires with currently a record six Super Bowl titles and three NFL MVP Awards. Of course, Brady is now with the Tampa Bay Bucs and is a +1600 fifth-favorite at William Hill sportsbook to win a fourth MVP in 2020.

Needless to say, every team in the NFL passed on Brady multiple times before the Patriots selected him; and if you are wondering, the player who went No. 198 overall in the sixth round on April 16, 2000, was Iowa safety Matt Bowen to the St. Louis Rams, and the No. 200 player was Southern Miss receiver Sherrod Gideon to the New Orleans Saints.

The top pick that year was Penn State defensive end Courtney Brown to Cleveland. It was not considered a good quarterback class as the first one chosen wasn't until No. 18 overall when the New York Jets picked Marshall's Chad Pennington.

There were six quarterbacked picked before Brady: Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi (third round, 65th overall to 49ers), Chris Redman (third round, 75th overall to Ravens), Tee Martin (fifth round, 163rd overall to Steelers), Marc Bulger (sixth round, 168th overall to Saints) and Spergon Wynn (sixth round, 183rd overall to Browns). That group is often referred to as the "Brady Six."

April 16, 2000, also happened to be the 48th birthday of Pats coach Bill Belichick. Otherwise, it was an unremarkable draft overall for New England. The team didn't have a first-round pick that year.

Here were the Pats' other selections: Hawaii guard Adrian Klemm (No. 46 overall), Arizona State running back JR Redmond (76), Michigan State offensive tackle Greg Randall (127), Boise State tight end Dave Stachelski (141), Missouri defensive tackle Jeff Marriott (161), Virginia defensive back Antwan Harris (187), Purdue defensive end David Nugent (201), New Mexico linebacker Casey Tisdale (226) and Georgia fullback Patrick Pass (239).

Pretty terrible NFL Draft otherwise but still gets an A+ simply for Brady.