In an alternate universe, Greg Olsen is a New England Patriot.
The veteran Carolina Panthers tight end nearly was traded back to the Pats back in 2010 when he played for the Chicago Bears. What caused the deal to fall through was the Patriots selecting Rob Gronkowski in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Olsen discussed the story of the near-trade Thursday on The Dan Patrick Show.
"Jerry Angelo brought me into his office and he's like 'hey, I'm just going to be honest with you, we have a trade in place with you contingent on how the draft falls tomorrow night,'" Olsen said. "Come to later find out through some guys I knew in the organization it was with the Patriots and it was them assuming [Gronkowski] was going to be taken in the first round.
"That year, the Patriots had three second-round draft picks and they were going to trade one of those for me if Gronk was already taken in the first round. He fell to the second round, they took him with their second-round pick, Belichick called back the Bears and said 'we're going to take Gronkowski and the trade is now off.'"
Watch below:
https://twitter.com/dpshow/status/1184922025585807360
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Olsen has told the story before, but this sheds more light on how trade talks between the Bears and Patriots went down prior to New England opting to go with Gronkowski instead.
While we can't help but wonder "what if?", it's safe to say things worked out just fine for both sides. Gronkowski developed into one of the best tight ends of all time and helped the Patriots to three Super Bowl titles, and Olsen has enjoyed a stellar career in Carolina where he's clearly cherished playing for the last eight years.
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