Julian Edelman remains humble when discussing his miraculous diving, double-clutched catch in Super Bowl LI, but even the New England Patriots wide receiver can admit there wasn’t a high probability he’d come down with that ball after it bounced off multiple Atlanta Falcons body parts.
Edelman said on NFL Network’s “Total Access” he would have caught that ball three times out of 100 attempts for a 3 percent success rate.
He also opened up on what went through his mind as the Patriots trailed 28-3 midway through the third quarter.
“When we were down 25, I constantly kept thinking about games,” Edelman said. “I thought about the Denver (Broncos) game in ’13, when we were down 24-0 at halftime. I was thinking about the Cleveland (Browns) game, when we were down by 14 points with like four minutes to go and we came back and somehow won that game. I was thinking about all these things, and our coaches have all these situational practices that we do where they make it pretty much impossible to succeed.
“So I kept on thinking, like, ‘we have time, we’ve done this before, if we do what the coaches ask us to do and just play one play at a time and have a short memory and just kind of nickel and dime, chip away at the armor, let’s just try to get some points. If we get points, you never know.’ That’s how you have to think. You just have to believe.”
Edelman also was asked about Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who went 2-0 as a starter to begin the 2016 season and currently is entwined in trade rumors. The Patriots could elect to move Garoppolo as he enters the last year of his rookie contract while Tom Brady, 39, is still playing like a 29-year-old.
“I’m not a paid GM, so I don’t know the whole value thing, but as far as a guy I get to play with every single day, Jimmy Garoppolo, the guy’s a stud,” Edelman said. “He went out and played in the regular season and he played very well. He’s got that kind of gunslinger kind of confidence, that Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers-kind of confidence. He practices hard, he prepares hard, he’s a good kid, he’s young. I think he’s a good player.”
It’s clear Edelman respects Garoppolo, but he’d probably prefer Brady, with whom he has a famous bromance, remains at quarterback.
Thumbnail photo via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports Images
