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Every now and then, I have to chuckle over some of the things I've written in the past. I imagine some of you do the same probably even with the more recent stuff.

Anyway, as you know, I write little "thumbnail" profiles about the players the Patriots select in each NFL Draft. And from time to time, I look back at some of them to see how close I was to actually hitting the nail on the head.

This one from a few years back caught my eye:

"STRENGTHS: Good height, Very poised and composed. Smart and alert. Reads coverages well and has a good touch on his passes. A true leader.

"WEAKNESSES: Poor build, looks too skinny. Lacks mobility. Not a good ad-libber. Lacks a strong arm. "PROGNOSIS: He fits in more with the Patriots' system than Michael Bishop does, but do they really need another statue behind center?"

If you haven't figured it out yet, that thumbnail profile appeared on Page 19 of your Blue Ribbon Daily on Monday, April 17, 2000. The subject? A fellow named Tom Brady, the sixth-round pick out of Michigan (199th overall), who would hold the 53rd and final roster spot for the entire 2000 season. Then someone got hurt, Brady played a lot and things pretty much turned out OK for him and the Patriots.

I was thinking about that earlier Tuesday while perusing some of the thumbnails I wrote this year, especially this one:

"STRENGTHS: Had the top QB rating of those that worked out at the Combine. Good size and mobility, competitive, smart and has the tools to compete at the next level. Not afraid to run for yards. Solid character and a well-respected leader.

"WEAKNESSES: Needs to polish his decision-making and accuracy. Could stand to speed up his delivery. Has been dinged up a lot in his career, probably because he runs a lot. Had thumb surgery on his passing hand in 2006.

"PROGNOSIS: So long, Matt Cassel. Nice to know you, Matt Gutierrez. Will be a work in progress, but appears to have the potential to be Tom Brady with the added benefit of mobility. Could the Golden Boy have a challenger in the making?"

You can start chuckling now if you like.

Admittedly, I like to throw a little bit of hyperbole into these little snippets just to make certain you're paying attention. Surely it's absurd to suggest that San Diego State's Kevin O'Connell, about whom the second profile was written, would be automatically in line to unseat Brady, a three-time Super Bowl winner in the prime of his career. Our Tom is not going to cry himself to sleep in Gisele Bündchen's arms any time soon over fears that he may lose his job to some raw rook from the Left Coast.

Then again, nobody thought Brady was going to supplant Drew Bledsoe eight years ago. It amazed most people that, when training camp was over and the 53-man roster was set, Brady was still on the roster as the fourth quarterback, a redundancy that many believed to be a waste of a roster spot on a team that had more holes than a block of Swiss cheese at other positions.

But the right people saw something in Brady. First it was the late Dick Rehbein, the quarterbacks coach who watched Brady at close range at in his Michigan workout and saw something that led him to strongly recommend the lanky lad to Bill Belichick. The latter clearly agreed with Rehbein's assessment after training camp, and handed the clipboard to Brady for an intensive year-long course in sideline management. Between the end of the 2000 season and the start of the 2001 training camp, Brady blossomed. He hit the weights and put a lot of muscle on that stringbean frame, and it was clear throughout the 2001 training camp that Brady had made the most of his education, both the sideline clipboard-holding and the offseason passing camps.

He leapfrogged all the way to the No. 2 position behind Bledsoe entering the regular season, and then the fickle finger of fate interceded. When Mo Lewis put the declining Bledsoe into the hospital on Sept. 23, 2001, an era began.

Seven seasons, four Super Bowls and three Lombardi Trophies later, Brady is entrenched as the game's premier quarterback. You might get a few howls of protest from fans of the Manning brothers, but the results speak for themselves.

Brady is a classic case of an athlete whose intangible qualities far exceeded the physical limitations he was perceived to have at the time of his drafting. Iron will, supreme confidence and dedication to self-improvement lifted Brady from among the teeming masses of low-round draft choices to the peak of the mountain. And there's very little reason why anyone should believe he won't remain there for a while.

But

It's Belichick's job to be able to look into the future and prepare himself and his team for all sorts of eventualities. Entering his ninth year as head coach, at age 56, he is showing no signs of taking that responsibility lightly and coasting his way to the Hall of Fame.

He knows that Brady is entering his ninth season in the NFL as well. He knows that Brady has been one of the luckiest men in the world when it comes to avoiding injury, having missed only one half of one football game since 2001, and no time whatsoever since that season's AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh.

Belichick knows all about the law of averages. He knows that eventually, Brady will get hurt. And he thinks back to last Oct. 21, when he asked Matt Cassel to hold a comfortable lead against Miami and saw the little-used backup immediately throw an interception returned for a touchdown by Jason Taylor, and you probably knew what Cassel's future would be when Belichick sent Brady back onto the field to finish off the Dolphins.

Someday, the future may very well be in Kevin O'Connell's hands. It's fair to suggest that it's even more likely now than when Brady was drafted, because O'Connell was selected more than 100 picks higher in his draft than Brady was in his.

Brady is only 30, but that's athletic middle age, and the nature of football increases the risk that the end could come sooner than anyone might think.

This may also be a bit of a stretch, but with Brady jet-setting all over Europe with his supermodel galpal as the offseason conditioning program began, I could understand it if the coach wanted to offer a gentle reminder to his star QB that under the right circumstance, anyone can be replaced - especially if he somehow senses a slacking-off in the commitment that made Brady what he is.

As I said, it's Belichick's job to make sure he's prepared for any eventuality. This time, he seems to be taking it very seriously. I didn't get that sense when, a few years ago, he drafted a kid who hadn't done much actual quarterbacking since his high school days to become the backup for the best signal-caller in the land.

I certainly got that sense this time around.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com.