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

[patfanken]

A couple of points:

First a key phrase most are missing is "at the time". OF COURSE he'd feel disappointed that he'd lost his job, He was a professional athlete and by definition he was VERY competitive. He was every bit as confident about his abilities as Brady was about his.

Also it should be remembered that Brady in 2001 wasn't nearly the finished product that his is now. .

The BOTTOM LINE is that Brady simple took better care of the ball than Drew. Drew was the ultimate gunslinger of his day. The 2001 Patriots was a team that won by playing very tough scoring defense (IIRC they were about 26th in yards) and a controlled offense that didn't turn the ball over. Brady was simply the better QB for THAT team, but "at the time" is wasn't as clear if he were the better QB.

Ultimately Brady has proven that he's not only the best QB in Patriot History, but among the best of all time. Drew is now gracefully facing the fact that he has to live his life knowing that he is the 2nd best QB in Pats history. Either Antwine or he will make a great addition to the Pats HOF

 

[Jackson 2]

I loved Drew back in the day but you are spot on with his "performance" in that game. It seemed Drew was trying to throw it to the Steelers all day long.

I think it was the 4th quarter when Bledsoe threw the ball directly at a D-Lineman, but thankfully the guy dropped it.

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.

 

[BelichickFan]

Yup! I can still remember that hook shot he made to nobody when he was being pressured. Was that one of the WTF moments you're talking about?

Yes it was. He actually threw it blindly IIRC. He was pretty bad in the second half but he did well enough to get us through so I'm not trying to be too critical.

 

[Captain Cliche]

I read somewhere Belichick found it easy to game plan for Bledsoe when he was HC of Cleveland. 5 step drop and look for Ben Coats. That would account for them beating NE in the playoffs

He knew what he had with Drew and how easy it was to defend him. What they needed was someone to not turn the ball over.

I don't feel too sorry for Drew because he refused to evolve.

 

[Raymond]

I loved Drew when he was our starter. But it's been ten years now and, not once during that span, would you find any Pats fans wishing things were otherwise.

Drew should count his money and grow his hops simply acknowledging, he wasn't the best ever.

 

[Froob]

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?

 

[jefmblrd]

Bledsoe needs to stop whining and just appreciate his career and the fact that he was nominated to be in the Pats HOF. He was replaced by a better quarterback-there is no fair. The job goes to the better player.

 

[Reckedtrek]

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.

 

[Rob0729]

I don't think Bledsoe said anything wrong or petty. He said that "at the time" he thought it wasn't fair. Do you think if in two or three years that Brady is in a similiar situation that he would think it was fair if he lost his starting job to an injury? If Bledose said that it still eats at him today, that would be a different thing. We also don't know the question he was responding to. If the question was "how did you feel at the time when Belichick chose to still go with Brady over you?", he was just being honest.

I am a Bledsoe fan, but I knew at the time that Brady was just a better fit for the offense Belichick and Weis wanted to run. So I supported the decision to go with Brady. I appreciate what he did. Everyone moved one. Nothing from this interview or any other interview makes me think Bledsoe still holds a grudge. He did for a while, but he seems to have moved past his football life. The only reason he is even talking about this stuff now is because he was nominated for the Patriots HOF.

I think Bledsoe deserves to be in the Patriots HOF and he is my selection for this year. As for his contribution to the 2001 team, I do think his performance in the AFC title game is overrated. But I still think he did help to win that game and he did help Brady a lot get acclimated to the NFL level. He earned his ring in my eyes.

 

[Wolfpack]

That was a Very important moment, brady got knocked out of the game and bledsoe comes in and plays a great game.

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.)

 

[Fencer]

They both deserved to play.

Not both of them could.

Joe Montana and Steve Young each were treated more unfairly than Bledsoe at different times they were teammates, for similarly unavoidable reasons.

 

[Patjew]

Life isn't fair. That being said, BB's Patriots are as close as you can get to a meritocracy, and what more can we ask for.

Nevertheless, I like and appreciate Drew. I'm glad he wasn't our QB after the Mo Lewis hit, but I wish him well.

 

[Deus Irae]

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.

 

[townes]

I can understand Bledsoe feeling that way after everything he had achieved in NE and the beating he took doing it, however Belichik did the right thing and made the right decision and if he hadn't it would have been the team that he had treated "unfairly," as playing Bledsoe against his better judgement would have been a disservice to them all.

 

[italian pat patriot]

Brady and Bledsoe are the two best quarterbacks of all time in franchise history and I personally am a fan of both

i don't think too Drew said something so wrong or so negative

 

[Fencer]

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.

 

[dhamz]

This isn't really a surprise. If you read Drew's media guys (Borges and Cafardo) at the time, they were carrying his off the record thoughts about it almost daily and his feelings were crystal clear. If you read Michael Holley's book, you know that Drew made his displeasure just as clear in the locker room and to the coaching staff.

The decision itself could not have been more fair. It was almost unprecedented in modern sports for its fairness. Coaches preach that the players who perform the best will play but that isn't true when you bring big $ into it. To bench the $100m face of the franchise QB for an unknown kid making the minimum salary because the unknown outperformed him just isn't done. It was a very fair move by BB and one that he made knowing if the team didn't win he was possibly going to be out of a job.

 

[GostkowSKI]

It's been a while since I read "Patriot Reign" so my memory on this is a little fuzzy, but didn't Drew go to the coaches after the 2001 regular season and ask that he be reinserted as QB1, saying they needed veteran leadership in the playoffs?

 

[Uncle Rico]

... i don't think too Drew said something so wrong or so negative

Agreed. It was a very quick sentence in a 15-minute or so interview. He didn't dwell on it. The overall sense was far from the bitter-Drew feeling you might get from parts of this thread.

I loved hearing some of the old football stories. Talked about the Vikings game in '94 (almost typed '04; time flies!) and playing across from John Randle — how he was "special" in that he would actually research opponents' family members' names and include them in his taunting.

 

[RobertWeathers]

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 have the same sentiment as you, Fencer.

As fans we do tend to be a bit harsh (and too forgiving sometimes for that matter) regarding athletes. Trying to put myself in Drew's shoes for a moment, he enjoyed a great deal of success here. He was the owner's favorite and was the team's leader for 7 years. Did he feel a bit of entitlement? Sure. Is it natural to feel that way after years of success? Certainly.

With that said, I firmly believe that Drew might be conveniently overlooking the fact that in his previous 26 starts, the team was 7-19. We can all agree that Drew did not have the same level of talent around him in 1999 or 2000 as he did throughout the mid 1990s, but the fact is that he simply was not raising his game as a franchise QB needs to when his team loses. With that said, Drew does not deserve all the blame but he does deserve some. He played some bad, bad, bad games over that stretch. At the end of the day, as we have seen time and time again, in BB eyes if you lose you are not afforded the benefit of the doubt or receive preferential treatment on any level- that philosophy certainly applied to Drew. Right or wrong. Fair or unfair.