Heading into the 2001 NFL draft, the New England Patriots were coming off of a 7-9 season, the first under head coach Bill Belichick.
No one knew that the team would go on to win six Super Bowls over the next two decades, including one that very year, so New England was just trying to add talented players to their roster.
In a recent appearance on Julian Edelman's "Games with Names" podcast, former Patriots exec Ernie Adams shared a tidbit about the draft which was one of the first times the team got an off-field win over a bitter rival.
"One player that we didn't want to get away was your friend Matt Light," Adams said. "Of course, the year he came out, middle of the second round, we're picking and the team ahead of us is the Jets and ahead of them is the Lions... We call Matt Light. 'Hey, Matt. We're really interested. How you doing?' 'Hey, coach. The Jets just called me. They're gonna take me.' So we knew right there. It's very cut and dry. We're either gonna get a trade executed with the Lions so we can get Matt, or we're just gonna sit there and watch the Jets take him.
"So, we call the Lions. We're really trying to work out a trade with them. The guy that they want is the center from Nebraska, Dominic Raiola. I said 'Look, we got Damien Woody. Don't worry, we're not gonna draft a center. That's not gonna happen.' We get the trade executed with the Lions when they're on the clock. We jump up, and we take Matt Light...
We got the solid intel, that if we want Matt, we have to get in front of the Jets, and the only way that can happen is if we do a trade with the Lions."
Light went on to play 12 years for the Patriots, winning three Super Bowls and making three Pro Bowls and an All-Pro team. He was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 2018.
New York ended up taking LaMont Jordan, who played just four seasons with the team and actually played for the Patriots in 2008.
While it was probably great for Belichick and company to get the player that they wanted, he probably enjoyed getting someone that the Jets wanted.
