September 23 marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most important games in NFL history. At the time, of course, nobody had a clue how important it would be.
It was Week 2 of the 2001 NFL season. Quarterback Drew Bledsoe was starting the second game of his ninth season with the New England Patriots. It would be his last start for the Patriots.
With New England trailing the New York Jets 10-3 in the fourth quarter, Bledsoe rolled to his right, ran up the sideline and took a vicious hit from linebacker Mo Lewis. Bledsoe, who led New England to Super Bowl XXXI and passed for 3,500 or more yards in a season six times, played one more series but then came out of the game. He was taken to the hospital and treated for a collapsed lung and internal bleeding in his chest.
Enter second-year backup Tom Brady, the sixth-round pick in 2000 who made all of three pass attempts as a rookie.
No heroics from Brady in his first significant game action. He completed five of 10 passes for 46 yards, and that 10-3 score was the final. Soon enough, however, Brady would become the G.O.A.T.
Nobody can honestly say they saw it coming. That said, veteran NFL writer Tom E. Curran, who was a young Patriots beat writer for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass., at the time, remembers being impressed with Brady in training camp. In the week leading up to Brady’s first career start, this is what Curran wrote:
“If Tom Brady can take this chicken-bleep offense and turn it into chicken salad, then whoever’s making the calls in Foxboro owes it to the few million who watch on Sundays and the people who’ve been sitting on cold metal benches for 30-odd years cheering for bad teams to rethink it all. …
It’s time to batten down the hatches. We are either sailing straight into a month-long referendum on the immeasurable talent of Drew Bledsoe or a full-blown, Nor’easter quarterback controversy.”
Three days later, The MetroWest Daily ran a story quoting then-Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, asking him what Patriots fans should expect from Brady. Carr was effusive:
“The people of Boston, before this is over, are going to find out the same things I know about Tom Brady.”
Brady’s first two starts produced zero touchdown passes and a 1-1 record. The Patriots were 5-11 in 2000, Bill Belichick’s first season as the Pats’ head coach. Nobody was expecting much from this kid.
MORE: Tom Brady’s Net Worth, Contracts, and Sports Ownership
By Week 10, Bledsoe was back practicing and ready to play in a showdown against the St. Louis Rams. Belichick had other plans.
“I’m gonna play the guy that I think gives us the best chance to win every week,” Belichick told the media. “That’s who it’s gonna be.”
Brady started against the Rams, and the Patriots lost to fall to 5-5 on the season. Everyone expected Bledsoe back for Week 11. Instead, Belichick announced that Brady was his starter — for the rest of the season.
Hindsight — knowing that Brady would go on to win seven Super Bowls, five Super Bowl MVPs and be regarded as one of the most successful athletes in all of professional sports — makes it hard to grasp the situation at that particular moment in time. The debate over whether Bledsoe should be given his job back was all the rage on sports talk radio.
Twitter wasn’t a thing until 2006, but imagine if it was around for this. Fans and insiders alike would be tweeting all day and night criticizing or making fun of Belichick (you know, like they do today).
Here’s the best modern-day hypothetical to put it in perspective:
Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert hasn’t been to a Super Bowl like Bledsoe, but in seven seasons as the Chargers’ starting QB, he’s put up gaudy numbers, been to the playoffs and established himself as his team’s entrenched starter. Just like Bledsoe.
Now imagine Herbert gets injured. Backup Trey Lance comes in. Not a perfect comparison, because Lance was once a high first-round draft pick and he’s started six NFL games. But let’s say Lance goes 5-3 in his first eight games starting for the Chargers. Now Herbert is back and practicing with the team.
And head coach Jim Harbaugh names Lance the starting quarterback for the remainder of the season.
How do you suppose the Twitterverse would react to that news?
In the first game after Brady was named starter for the rest of the season, he threw four touchdown passes in an easy win over the Saints, A week later, he led a fourth-quarter game-winning comeback drive to beat the Jets. The Patriots would not lose another game that season, gaining revenge on the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI as Brady led the fifth game-winning drive of his early career.
The rest, as they say, is history. Bledsoe was traded to the Buffalo Bills in the offseason and he played three seasons in Buffalo before ending his career with two seasons as a Dallas Cowboy. Bledsoe still ranks 20th all-time with 44,611 passing yards and 29th with 251 TD passes.
Despite losing his job to Brady, Bledsoe did play a role in New England’s 2001 Super Bowl run. Brady was temporarily knocked out of the AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Bledsoe was forced into action. He passed for 102 yards and threw an 11-yard TD pass to David Patten in the final minute of the first half to give the Patriots a 14-3 lead.
Unlike Bledsoe, however, Brady did not lose his job to injury.
More NFL Essentials
- Top 25 Highest-Paid NFL Players Right Now
- All 32 NFL Teams’ Salary Cap Spending
- Richest NFL Owner Rankings
- Best NFL Draft Steals of All Time
- Every NFL Referee: Most and Least Experienced
- Biggest Celebrity Fans of Every NFL Team
- NFL’s Most Intimidating Home-Field Advantages
