VIDEO: Julian Edelman high school highlights
Patriots star led high school team to section championship at quarterback in 2004.
Rex Ryan and Buffalo Bills fans have been wondering the same thing this week: Is
Julian Edelman actually going to play quarterback for the Patriots on Sunday when the teams meet.
Ryan, in fact, even interrupted a media conference call Edelman was part of Wednesday, pretended to be a reporter and asked the Super Bowl hero: "Are you playing quarterback this week?"
Edelman responded: "I'm going to do whatever the coaches ask me to do so if they ask me to go out and give a glass of water to someone on the sidelines, I'm going to do it with a smile on our face if it helps our team win."
If Ryan wonders
if Edelman can play quarterback, the answer is affirmative as confirmed by the video above presented to us by his former
Woodside (Calif.) coach Steve Nicolopulos, now the vice president and an analyst for Bay Area Online Sports Network.
In 2004, Edelman played quarterback his senior season at Woodside, accounting for more 3,200 yards and 42 touchdowns to lead the Wildcats to an improbable 13-0 season and Central Coast Section title. Edelman had nine catches for 109 yards and the game-winning touchdown with 4:50 left in a 28-24 win over Seattle in Super Bowl XLIX.
The same skills New England coach Bill Belichick sees now, Nicolopulos saw more than a decade ago.
"He was the perfect leader," Nicolopulos said. "He wanted to be the quarterback and truth is he could have played anywhere. He had an amazing football IQ. He could read things. And what a competitor."
