Bledsoe: "didn't think it was fair" being replaced by Brady

[Rob0729]

Bledsoe did some obnoxious things, like that huge article he spawned in the Globe midseason, or the visible unhappiness around and after the time of the Super Bowl.

Well, people are human, he never got that bad, he returned to the high road pretty soon, and in the mean time he played to the best of his ability. And the good plays he DID make in his generally mediocre performance in Pittsburgh were crucial.

I'm cool with all that.

Humans are ... human.

I don't remember Bledsoe being anything but supportive publically. There were rumors of him being less than supportive private (if I remember correctly, that Globe piece was all about rumors and unnamed sources and no quotes nor any hard evidence of Bledsoe being anything less than a team player). People read too much into Bledsoe's sideline demeanor just like the "Brady lost his passion for football" crowd read too much into his demeanor today. If you watched the "Brady 6" documentary, they show footage of Bledsoe congratulating Brady for winning the Super Bowl and being really friendly.

Now I am sure behind the scenes he was not as good of a team player as he put on in public. I know there has been a lot of stories that he and Charlie Weis had a falling out because Bledsoe felt Weis lied to him that lingered for years after Bledsoe left New England. There were also rumors of a strained relationship between Brady and Bledsoe that Bledsoe somewhat confirms in this article.

I do agree that it is pretty much human nature that a seasoned veteran who loses his job to injuries would feel it is unfair. Many veterans react the same when they are beaten out by a young players even without injuries. Remember how Ted Johnson reacted when he was told he was going to be a healthy scratch when he left the team.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I can see why he would be a little bitter about it, but does Bledsoe think it would've been fair if Brady would've been placed on the bench and Bledsoe allowed to play because it wasn't fair? Life isn't fair, sometimes it shouldn't be.

I don't read anything in his comments that suggest he would disagree with that.

I don't read him as saying "Things should have been done differently because I thought they were unfair." He's just saying, "This is how I felt and feel: I didn't think it was fair.'" I think that's a "fair" statement for him to make.

The fact that "Life isn't fair," doesn't mean we have to "feel good" about it when that reality affects us in ways we don't like.

I think we have to read his comments in the context of the competitive person he was and is. He actually goes on to imply that he thinks he could have done the things Brady did. While I really disagree with him, I can see how a highly competitive guy would feel that way.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

He had the big TD pass/drive. Other than that he didn't have a great game and had a couple of WTF moments. He got us through, no more, no less.

Brady : 12-18-115
Bledsoe : 10-21-102

By coincidence, I watched the 2001/02 "Three Games to Glory" DVD with my kids last night.

Yeah, considering he hadn't played since September/October, he did very well and clearly caught the Steelers' D offguard on that first drive when they didn't expect Charlie to go down field like that.

But, true to form, "Drew was Drew." He made several bad throws and nearly gave away the tying TD late in the fourth quarter when he threw the ball right into the arms of a rushing defender inside the Pats 20.

 

[Ring 6]

In the end, we probably don't win without having both of them. Was only 9 years old at the time so don't remember much but would Michael Bishop of been able to beat the steelers?

It would have been Damon Huard, and yes we would have still won.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Yes - I don't think Bledsoe was shy about this at the time - and there were a bit a sour grapes upon his leaving...

There's some fans who believed back then that "you shouldn't lose your job due to injury" - I think Bledsoe felt the same way. Obviously no one would fault Belichick for having a standard of letting the best guy play in hindsight.

A few members of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee have noted the negative feedback they've gotten from their nomination, and their understanding that neither Bledsoe nor Parcells had a storybook ending to their tenure - in neither case did they feel the bad outweighed the good however.

I think that about sums it up. When Drew says "unfair," that's what he means...it was unfair that I lost my job to injury. As I said above, I think that's a "fair" comment for anyone to make. Unfortunately, "life is unfair," and someone else made the decision.

I think this is a case where we have to keep two contradictory ideas in our brains at the same time.; "It was unfair" and "It was the right thing to do."

 

[Gwedd]

Fair's a funny word, and politicians make careers off of its vagaries. Was it fair to Bledsoe? No. Would it have been fair to pull Brady? No.

Either way, someone wasn't getting treated fairly, and the Patriots won the Super Bowl by being unfair to Bledsoe. I thank Drew for his years as a Patriots QB, and I wish him well in his new life.

Agree. In sports, you play by the rules, but I'm not certain where, exactly, the word "hair" comes into play. You play to win, and you want those players who will be the best fit in that situation. Brady was a better fit, and Drew wasn't.

This is why I like the "running back by committee" approach. You can put in the RB that is the best fit for the situation, rather than have a one-size-fits-all approach.

But back to the topic at hand: Only one team gets to win. Only one QB gets to play at a time. Play the best one regardless of how the player feels about it.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I heard the interview live and thought that Bledsoe was pretty gracious overall. Lots of praise for Brady and what he's become "on and off the field." Let's face it, that situation in '01 was tough. As a competitor you'd expect him to have disagreed with Belichick's decision, just like you understand why he said today he believes that season would have gone on and ended the same way with him at QB (I really don't think so.)

I have a lot of respect for the person I understand Bledsoe to be, and for a lot of what he did on the field. Brady's just better. Bledsoe did some good stuff in the AFCCG filling in, but I also remember several moments during that game where that old feeling of disaster being one play away crept in.

I think it was the Brady 6 special where you see Bledsoe saying to Brady after the SB win, "You are the man." Really, if you put yourself in Bledsoe's shoes in that situation (remembering that you're an elite level competitor), you can understand what it must have taken to say that in that situation.

Well said. I have nothing to add to that.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

My recollection is that he threw it right into the guy's stomach, but he just dropped it. I understand Drew's disappointment, but Brady was simply the better payer and it wasn't by a close margin. I didn't hear the interview, but my guess is that Porky Gresh was particularly sympathethic to Drew.

Yeah, as I said above, I watched Three Games to Glory by coincidence last night. It was right on the numbers and deep in Pats territory. The guy looked like he could have walked into the end zone with it, but Drew had a lot of zip on the ball and he couldn't react to secure it.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Maybe Drew should have tried harder and spent less time whining about things not being fair. If you're getting beat, you have two options- do a better job or step aside. In either case whining is wasted energy and a waste of time.

I was glad the team stuck with Brady then and given the results it'd be pretty pathetic to b*tch about Brady at QB now.

I think most folks responding in this thread have it right; Drew isn't "whining."

 

[PatsFanSince74]

You have GOT to be kidding. Bledsoe was horrible that game. He did well finishing the drive he inherited, but was atrocious in the 2nd half.

I remember this one pass where he was being tackled and he flipped the ball backwards over his head completely blind. Fortunately that play was called back due to penalty. (EDIT: After reading the rest of the posts in this thread, it seems I am not the only one who remembered that play.)

By coincidence, I watched "Three Games to Glory" for 2001/02 last night.

I think a fair assessment of Bledsoe's performance in that game is that he came in off the bench and rallied a young team that could easily have been thrown off by the loss of the guy who had gotten them to that point. He put an immediate dagger into the heart of the Steelers by surprising them deep on that first drive (wasn't it great having Charlie Weis making the calls?) and then played "just well enough" the rest of the way, putting together a couple of good drives at the same time as he survived a couple of bad mistakes.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Fair's a funny word, and politicians make careers off of its vagaries. Was it fair to Bledsoe? No. Would it have been fair to pull Brady? No.

Either way, someone wasn't getting treated fairly, and the Patriots won the Super Bowl by being unfair to Bledsoe. I thank Drew for his years as a Patriots QB, and I wish him well in his new life.

Agreed.


Where ya been?

 

[Ring 6]

I think Bledose handled it very poorly in 2001. He was basically on camera calling BB a liar, and reportedly went up the back stairs to ask Kraft to overrule BB. Those actions were not in the best interest of the team, so I consider them inappropriate.
As far as what he has to say now, I could care less.
There is a tremendous difference between acting in a way that is or could be detrimental to the team, and commenting many years later. I would respect him a lot if he had never said a word, and today, or at whatever later point (his retirement would seem appropriate) he gave his side of the story, accusations, opinions, whatever. I lost a lot of respect when he put himself above the team, but his comments today are harmless.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Bledsoe did some obnoxious things, like that huge article he spawned in the Globe midseason, or the visible unhappiness around and after the time of the Super Bowl.

Well, people are human, he never got that bad, he returned to the high road pretty soon, and in the mean time he played to the best of his ability. And the good plays he DID make in his generally mediocre performance in Pittsburgh were crucial.

I'm cool with all that.

Humans are ... human.

Roger that.

 

[shmessy]

Anyone who saw The Brady 6 on ESPN watched a BB interview in there where he claims that Brady clearly outperformed Bledsoe in the 2001 TRAINING CAMP (something Brady predicted to former college teammate Aaron Shea before that training camp), but he started Bledsoe that year only because of experience. Mo Lewis' hit only forced his hand earlier than he planned.

 

[Ring 6]

Anyone who saw The Brady 6 on ESPN watched a BB interview in there where he claims that Brady clearly outperformed Bledsoe in the 2001 TRAINING CAMP (something Brady predicted to former college teammate Aaron Shea before that training camp), but he started Bledsoe that year only because of experience. Mo Lewis' hit only forced his hand earlier than he planned.

Yes. The 'lost my job to injury' claim is hollow. He lost his job because while he was injured his replacement played better than he had for at least 2 years.

 

[Rob0729]

BTW, this whole premise of the original article and thread is kinda bogus. I found a transcript of Bledsoe's interview on 98.5 and the article definitely twists the nature of Bledsoe's response quite a bit. Here is the question and answer:

Question: For the record in your eyes what was it like with Tom Brady during the 2001 Super Bowl season because I gotta think there was a part of you, christ it’s human nature, for you to not in your gut, in your heart, think what the hell? I should be the guy out there? What was it like with you and Tom [Brady] at that time?

Answer: “You know it was hard. There’s no getting around that, but it wasn’t hard…the difficulty of the situation had nothing to do with Tom [Brady] or really with me. It had to do with the situation where only one guy could be on the field and I didn’t like it. I didn’t think it was fair. All of those things. You know at the time and it made the relationship between me and Tom difficult at that point, but again through all of that I think we maintained a healthy level of respect for each other through the course of that season and we’ve maintained a friendship since than. Now looking back on that do I believe that we would have had the same or similar level of success had I not gotten hurt? Of course I do. That’s the way it works. Would that have been the case? Who knows. You know I don’t know. That being said with what Tom has done, the way he has played and the way he’s conducted himself on-and-off the field as a leader and a stand-up guy in the community and the world, I’m nothing but proud of him and it’s been a pleasure to watch him through the whole thing. I’ve been a big fan of his ever since I retired I should say. You know been a huge fan of Tom’s. I enjoy watching him play and enjoying watching the Patriots and the success that they’ve had building on what we got going there in the mid-1990′s.”

http://sportsradiointerviews.com/2011/04/22/drew-bledsoe-tom-brady-2001-season-difficult/

So not only did Gresch or Zo (not sure which guy ask the question) lead Drew into saying it was unfair at the time, Bledsoe was far more humble and gracious especially to Brady than the quote the original article pulled out makes it look like.

 

[jmt57]

BTW, this whole premise of the original article and thread is kinda bogus. I found a transcript of Bledsoe's interview on 98.5 and the article definitely twists the nature of Bledsoe's response quite a bit. Here is the question and answer:

http://sportsradiointerviews.com/2011/04/22/drew-bledsoe-tom-brady-2001-season-difficult/

So not only did Gresch or Zo (not sure which guy ask the question) lead Drew into saying it was unfair at the time, Bledsoe was far more humble and gracious especially to Brady than the quote the original article pulled out makes it look like.

What exactly in either the initial comment of the thread or the article is "bogus"?

From the excerpt used in the initial post in this thread:
Drew Bledsoe says on a radio interview that he didn't think it was fair at the time that he was replaced by Tom Brady during the 2001 season which ended in the franchise's first Super Bowl championship....

From the blog:
Bledsoe said that “I didn’t like it; I didn’t think it was fair at the time. That made the relationship between me and Tom difficult at that point. Looking back, do I believe we would have had the same or similar success had I not got hurt? Of course I do; that’s the way it works. Would that have been the case? Who knows?”

Bledsoe did go on to praise Brady and say that the two have a “good relationship.”

The blog is quite short and ends with a link to the interview for people to listen to; it's all strictly reporting of an event, with zero personal opinion added in. The interview is something newsworthy I think most Pats fans would be interested in hearing. It's not as if the column omitted a very important following sentence - something we've seen more than one national writer do this past year. Note that the words "at that point" and "at that time" were used in both the excerpt at the start of this thread and in the column itself.

I fail to see how "the article definitely twists the nature of Bledsoe's response quite a bit."

 

[Rob0729]

What exactly in either the initial comment of the thread or the article is "bogus"?

From the excerpt used in the initial post in this thread:
Drew Bledsoe says on a radio interview that he didn't think it was fair at the time that he was replaced by Tom Brady during the 2001 season which ended in the franchise's first Super Bowl championship....

From the blog:
Bledsoe said that “I didn’t like it; I didn’t think it was fair at the time . That made the relationship between me and Tom difficult at that point. Looking back, do I believe we would have had the same or similar success had I not got hurt? Of course I do; that’s the way it works. Would that have been the case? Who knows?”

Bledsoe did go on to praise Brady and say that the two have a “good relationship.”

The blog is quite short and ends with a link to the interview for people to listen to; it's all strictly reporting of an event, with zero personal opinion added in. The interview is something newsworthy I think most Pats fans would be interested in hearing. It's not as if the column omitted a very important following sentence - something we've seen more than one national writer do this past year. Note that the words "at that point" and "at that time" were used in both the excerpt at the start of this thread and in the column itself.

I fail to see how "the article definitely twists the nature of Bledsoe's response quite a bit."

Well, quite a bit may be overstating it, but twisted it none the same (which is the inherent danger of soundbites in general). I don't think it was intentional, but it makes it look like Bledsoe was still bitter about the situation where he was answering a very leading question basically begging him to biatch about the situation. He just answered the question honestly and probably wouldn't have even talked about the situation or even thinks about it if he wasn't asked a pointed question.

All you have to is look at some of the comments in this and other threads and you will see that the comments were twisted. People think he is still bitter by the situation when all he did was try to answer a loaded question as diplamatically as possible.

 

[DaBruinz]

He had the big TD pass/drive. Other than that he didn't have a great game and had a couple of WTF moments. He got us through, no more, no less.

Brady : 12-18-115
Bledsoe : 10-21-102

If I remember correctly, Bledsoe had a huge WTF moment where he just tossed the ball up and it was almost intercepted.. And had it been intercepted, it would have cost the Pats the game.

Drew needs a reality check. The reality being that he wasn't that good anymore and Brady was better than he was. Drew should be glad he has a ring and that he's probably going to get into the HOF. He really has no one to blame but himself. Had he gone down instead of trying to get the extra yard, he wouldn't have been hit in the chest by Mo Lewis. He wouldn't have had the ruptured artery and almost die and he probably would have been the Pats QB for 2 more weeks before BB benched him for Brady anyways.

 

[Joker]

he lobbied hard for those abominable contracts for his buddies, Rucci and Lane...and they got paid..after that stroke of Drewnius, he spent the next few season on his back so much, we called him Drew Bedsore.