FOXBOROUGH – Julian Edelman’s Hall of Fame induction speech revolved around all the people who helped shape his career.
Edelman waxed poetic about numerous teammates. Of course, he singled out Tom Brady, thanking his quarterback for helping him achieve greatness.
He said Brady set the example for everyone, and told a funny story that illustrated the point.
“One of the first things Tom Brady ever said to me, I think we just out of one of our first OTA practices … and I said, ‘Man, you work so hard,’”” Edelman said. “He looked at me with those blue eyes, and that jaw line, and he goes: ‘Babe, if all you ever do, is all you ever done, then all you ever get, is all you ever got … then he winked at me and left.”
As in, if you don’t work harder than everyone else, that’s all you’re ever going to get. It stuck with Edelman.
Brady wasn’t present at the ceremony, but sent a video message that was shown.
“There’s nobody who’s more deserving, and embodies what it means to be a Patriot more than you,” Brady said of Edelman in the message. “The toughness, the competitiveness, the relentless drive you brought every day to work. Everybody saw the catches on Sundays. But what I got to see were all the hours that nobody else did. All the late nights, the film sessions, all the things we did in Montana, in Brookline, the practices you pushed through things most people couldn’t, that’s why you became the player that you were, and that’s why you have that red jacket today.
“You weren’t the biggest. You weren’t the fastest. But nobody was tougher, nobody was more dependable, and nobody came through in the clutch when it matter most more than you.”
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