They were unproven at wide receiver, and Moss offered a possibility that was both tantalizing and divisive. The Packers had gone 8-8 the season before and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year. Cook called Favre to relay Moss’ question about whether Favre would stick around. ![]() Instead, the Packers selected defensive end Vonnie Holliday two spots before the division-rival Minnesota Vikings selected Moss, who would torment Green Bay for seven seasons. Can you imagine that? That wouldn’t be fair.” In the car during the trip, Cook remembers Moss saying to Favre: “You need to tell the people in Green Bay to draft me. ![]() During the trip, Cook took Favre to meet Moss, then a star at nearby Marshall University, and the two hit it off. Back in the 1990s, Favre had traveled with Cook to the agent’s hometown in West Virginia. The Packers were interested in dealing for Moss, the executive said, but they wanted to know: Would he play in Green Bay?Īaron Rodgers' legacy in Green Bay? Arguably the best there ever was for an iconic franchiseĬook was an ideal middleman. They had turned in for the night, confident Moss would be theirs in a matter of hours.īefore that draft, Bus Cook answered a call from a Green Bay executive. More than eight hundred miles away, in Green Bay, Wis., Packers executives were experiencing no such angst. So Pioli sat in his boxers and stared at his phone, waiting, pleading: Mr. If a deal were to happen, New England needed to (1) agree to trade terms with Oakland, (2) speak to Moss on the phone, (3) fly in Moss for a physical exam and face-to-face meeting, (4) gauge Moss’ commitment after a middling season in Oakland and (5) determine if Moss would accept a drastically reduced salary. The Patriots had offered Davis and the Raiders a fourth-round pick for Moss - but the fourth round started in less than 11 hours. All he knew was the Patriots needed to upgrade at receiver, and Randy Moss, the greatest of his generation and one of the greatest of all time, was available. Pioli didn’t know any of that at the time. The trade would lead to great what-ifs involving championship teams and Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks and would even help modernize the way offense was played. ![]() Pioli and the Patriots were attempting to pull off one of the most significant draft-day trades of the past 20 years, a deal with profound ramifications in New England, Green Bay and across the NFL. Davis,” so great was his respect for the iconoclastic owner of the Oakland Raiders. No matter how many years Pioli had been in the NFL, no matter that he was now the de facto general manager for Patriots coach Bill Belichick, he could never call Al Davis anything other than “Mr. Pioli did not join them even though he was exhausted after the three-round first day of the 2007 NFL draft.
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