In fact, E-Rob has long had a fan in Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, even if their paths had never crossed until this season.
"This is our first year together, but I've always noticed him before," Graham said. "He came after me to New England. He came after me to Miami. Then he was at Pittsburgh.
"I knew a lot about him because of one particular play he had his rookie year. I tell him all the time. I show it every year. It's an amazing play. It's a [39]-yard gain, but it's an amazing play by him as a rookie. So, I remember watching that play and saying that was the [play] of the Super Bowl against Atlanta."
Yes, you know E-Rob and the Patriots came back from a 28-3 deficit to beat the Falcons. And no doubt, you remember Julian Edelman's miraculous scoop catch. But none of it matters if not for a low-key high-hustle play by E-Rob in the fourth quarter.
With the Falcons clinging to a 28-20 lead and on their own 10-yard line with less than 6 minutes remaining in regulation, Matt Ryan hit running back Devonta Freeman in stride and Freeman was gone…until he wasn't.
E-Rob, on the opposite hashmark and on NRG Stadium's artificial turf after being pushed down, got up, took chase and somehow caught Freeman to take him down at midfield. Without the successful pursuit, Freeman likely scores and the Falcons win Super Bowl LI.
"Play of the game," Graham said. "Play of the game."
Graham, though, was not as excited about another E-Rob highlight.
"Yeah, against me," Graham rued, recalling when he was the Dolphins DC in 2019. "I know. There's a story behind that one. It was alright. Hey, we won the game."
E-Rob has one catch in his career. Playing emergency fullback for the Patriots in 2019, he had a 39-yard catch-and-run touchdown from…Tom Brady. The 540th TD pass of Brady's career, his second-to-last regular season TD pass for New England.
And yet…
Replays of the score show an innate athleticism needed by the middle linebacker/fullback to haul in an off-target throw from Brady.
"Sometimes," E-Rob said with a sly grin, "you've got to make the GOAT look good."