JSn

http://www.slate.com/id/2059381/

Snippets:

Regarding keeping Bledsoe or trading him:


Reading this article actually caused moderate shivers. Just saying.

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TheGodInAGreyHoodie

Great find.

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oldskool138

Please stop comparing Brady to Cassel re the Bledsoe incident. It sullies the fact that what Brady did was nothing short of a miracle.

Lets see what happens the next two weeks and revisit the issue during the bye week....or after Cassel has to face a halfway decent team.

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"You're all a bunch yahoos, hero worshipers and gutless suck-ups." - Tony Massarotti

JSn

Please stop not reading. All I did was quote an article rife with eerie similarities to our current situation.
If all we do, as sport fans, is base everything on facts, we might as well just check in once a year and see who won the SB.

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PATRIOTSFANINPA

I agree,I think you downgrade and actually insult Brady on what he did in 2001 which like you said was a miracle which had a mediocre running back and a receiving core which was good but not great.

Cassel has to do more than beat the Jets - Indy,San Diego,Seattle & Pittsburgh are the games that will show whether he is a loser or not,the other games are games the team should win or at least stay in if Cassel controls hisposition without screwing up
- If he can get the teams offense on a roll enough to be 2-2 or 3-1 with those teams then he might get them to the playoffs

I doubt that by the time this season ends we won't have any new Pats fan joining here at patsfans with the name 'BernardPollardRocks' but knowing how some fans really loved Bledsoe until Brady came around then drew became a joke and loser would not surprise me a bit if some turned on Brady if Cassel did the impossible and won the SB,its what did you do for me now that counts for some of our fans

Lifer

Nahhh. for some of us Drew was already a joke and a loser.

WAIT!!!!! He just threw another interception!!!!!!!!!!!

Gwedd

Well,

I think that a reasonable indication of what we will be getting next year with TFB is how well Peyton plays with the Colts this season. I don't believe that his injury was anything near what TFB has, but Manning was still looking hesistant and a fair bit rusty against Da Bears. It's certainly not rocket science, but still and all worth keeping in mind as we await #12's return.

TruthSeeker

Thanks for the article. Interesting and informative.

MassPats38

Certainly a nice flashback.

Despite claims that all or a majority of fans were calling for Bledsoe's head and welcomed Brady with open arms at the time of the injury, which reflects a bit of revisionist history given the fact Brady was an untested, low draft pick who apparently outplayed Bledsoe in the preseason that year (from an article I read as I couldn't find the preseason numbers: otherwise Brady threw exactly 3 regular season passes in 2000 and completed 1), Bledsoe was still viewed as the right starter at the time. I would venture a guess given past history that Belichick would have started Brady if he knew him to be the better option at the time. Brady was not anointed a savior at the time, which is why everyone was surprised when the team responded. Gloom and doom was the theme then among fans, but possibly slightly less than it is now as Bledsoe was a good quarterback but not an NFL and 2-time Super Bowl MVP and the team did not have the lofty expectations it does now.

I too was annoyed when Bledsoe would shut his brain down and force a pass or improvise and flip an interception. Those were his negatives. When he was good, he was very good and haters tend to forget his good games and the games he won in passing duels. Bledsoe made the Patriots credible when the team was considered a joke in the NFL (remember this team was once called "the Patsies"), Brady was key in making the franchise legendary.

The Bledsoe-Brady debate continued among fans after the Super Bowl, likely fueled by Bledsoe coming in to win in the playoffs against the Steelers (even though that game had the feel of finality for Bledsoe - the team simply did not respond to him the way it did for Brady). Fans still were not convinced Brady was not a flash in the pan and the Patriots would pay for unloading Bledsoe to Buffalo. The 9-7 showing in 2002 missing the playoffs while praying to back in at the end of the season did not silence that debate. The 2003 season did silence the debate. Brady was the right QB for this team. Again, that decision did not happen right away, nor after a few games. Brady's legend rose with that final drive (and Bledsoe by his side telling him in response to the directive to stay conservative passing "F*** that. Sling it!").

The media response to Brady was strange because Bledsoe was a media darling/informant and Brady is not. Losing Bledsoe triggered major local media hatred for Belichick (see Ron Borges as an example) and likely started the trend of unsupportive local writing, as alternative sources of information were no longer available to get around Belichick's stonewalling.

In the end, certainly a few similarities between now and 2001, but short of Cassel embodying everything Brady is now in a younger and cheaper version, there are too many differences to feel deja vu over it.

The team is better as a whole, Brady is an NFL legend thanks to his performing in the highest of pressure games, and Cassel just needs to do his job and let that better team do what it is capable of doing. Brady needed to take the reigns of an underdog team and raise up its level of play to a point previously unheard of in New England. Unlike Bledsoe, he doesn't flash brilliance, he sustains brilliance. That is consistency, and that is a trait I suspect Belichick values above all others. Absent an inability to recover his health, the only way Brady goes is if he hops the same flight as Kraft, Belichick and Pioli out of New England.

patsfaninpittsburgh

Since Cassell is a FA, it should help to ensure history does not repeat.

We should also note that TB has played alot of football these past seven years. We might find that this will add a few quality years on the backside.