Sean Payton wanted Giants to draft Tom Brady in 2000?

Years before he began serving as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2006, where he would win a Super Bowl in that role, Sean Payton was offensive coordinator with the New York Giants ahead of the 2000 NFL Draft that became famous for the New England Patriots getting quarterback Tom Brady with pick No. 199. 

Every team passed on Brady a handful of times before the to-be G.O.A.T. landed with New England, but Payton explained during a recent appearance on the "Green Light with Chris Long" podcast that he tried to convince the Giants to draft the Michigan product over two decades ago. 

"All right, so I’m in New York and my agent is Don Yee, and Don also represents Tom Brady," Payton explained, according to John Sigler of Saints Wire. "Don would periodically call me with a client that he just signed, and he said, 'Hey, will you call up Tom Brady? He’s at Michigan and I’ve got him, and just help him out with things that would be important for him at the combine.'" 

Payton continued that he met with Brady and later studied the signal-caller's college film before he gave him a late-third/early-fourth round draft grade. However, neither Payton nor Giants scout Raymond "Whitey" Walsh could convince the club to select the man who guided the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships but who also fell to Big Blue in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI. 

Oh, what could have been in multiple ways and for multiple individuals involved with this story.