Written by Emily Kaplan at MMQB.com
Matt Bowen spent the second day of the 2000 NFL draft at his childhood home in Glen Ellyn, a Chicago suburb. The long, drawn-out wait of a late-round pick is a common tale, and while the details vary they all involve an overwhelming amount of stress. For Bowen, a defensive back from Iowa, the third round flipped to the fourth, then the fifth. He fielded calls from the Cowboys and Steelers, who passed on him again, then again. Bowen became detached at the small family party, excusing himself to go upstairs. He closed the door to his parents’ bedroom and questioned everything. Am I good enough? What could I have done differently at Iowa? Should I have trained more for my 40-yard dash?
The phone rang. Mike Martz was on the line, and this time it was for real: The St. Louis Rams are drafting you with the 198th pick in the sixth-round.
As Bowen heard the echoes of celebration downstairs, he stayed fixated on the ESPN broadcast. The ticker had already been updated with Bowen’s selection, and the one after it: Pick No. 199, New England Patriots: Tom Brady, QB, Michigan. Bowen’s old Big Ten foe.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Oh, O.K.,’” Bowen says, “‘So that’s where Tom ended up.’”
It’s been nearly 17 years since that draft. Brady just won his record fifth Super Bowl title. He has declared that he plans to play into his mid-40s. Bowen has already been out of the league for nearly a decade.
He is back in the Chicago suburbs, at a coffee shop a few miles from his home. While Brady’s ascension is that of a legend, Bowen’s seven-year, four-stop, three-cut grind is a more typical snapshot of an NFL player’s career arc, and a true success story relative to most sixth-round picks. Bowen and Brady intersected several times, and though Bowen zigged while Brady zagged, it wasn’t until this year that the paths again aligned—metaphorically—as both men achieved validation.
But Bowen’s story is worth visiting for this reason: There were 198 players taken before Tom Brady in 2000. Thirty-one teams passed over the future Hall of Famer; many of them did so six times. Six other quarterbacks were taken before him. Heck, three kickers were taken before him.
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