September 23rd, 2001 NFL History was changed forever.
A couple of things should be noted. First, Drew Bledsoe was a good quarterback who had led the Patriots to the Super Bowl and if not for Desmond Howard going crazy on Special Teams, they might have beaten the Packers. By 2001, the Patriots were a struggling team, but he wasn’t in any danger of being benched.
Secondly, it is ironic that a hit by a Jet is what unintentionally started a Patriots dynasty.
Lastly, Drew Bledsoe almost died from this hit.
Any time you have internal bleeding, it is serious and things were a little sketchy for Bledsoe even though he ended up making a full recovery and had a decent career after he moved on from the Patriots.
But, what happens if Bledsoe’s slides or runs faster than a 9.3 40 and gets out of bounds before he is hit?
Before we get to Brady, we have to talk about Belichick, because he certainly wasn’t seen as a genius back in 2001. Before that year he had coach six seasons (5 with the Browns & 1 with Pats) and only had one winning season to show for it. The Patriots were 0-2 after losing the game Bledsoe got hurt in and you could say he was on the hot seat. If Belichick has another 5-11 season with Bledsoe is he even the coach after the season? How many more years would he had gotten? If he loses his Patriots job would he had ever been given another coaching job? It is likely he might have been given one more season if Bledsoe led Patriots hadn’t made the playoffs, but his leash would have been really short and it is more likely his career as a head coach would have been over.
Brady was a 6th round draft pick, when you are a 6th round draft pick normally the only way you get your shot is if someone gets hurt and if they do get hurt, you have to make an immediate impact to be considered a viable option to get the job.
A lot of people only remember the ending of the Patriots season, but the main thing that helped Brady was that Bledsoe’s recovery was very slow (internal bleeding normally does that to a person).
The Patriots were only 5-5 and not a lock by any means to make the playoffs when they won 6 games in a row to end the season. They won three of those games by 7 points or less. Once they made the playoffs, more luck to seem be on their side.
You could do a “What happens if there was no tuck rule” article and that probably changes the fate of the Patriots as well. Whatever the case they won the game. In the AFC Championship game, Brady got hurt and a now healthy Bledsoe led them to a win. Brady was named the starter in the Super Bowl and with the game tied, the Pats could have sat on the ball, but Belichick trusted Brady and he got them in position for the game winning field goal.
A lot of dominos had to fall, maybe it was destiny? Maybe it was dumb luck? Whatever the case 15 years later, both Brady & Belichick are mention as the GOATS & the Pats have 4 rings.
Maybe Brady would have gotten his opportunity later in his career, maybe he would have been Matt Flynn, we will never know. Maybe Bledsoe would have led the Patriots to the Super Bowl and Brady would be a teacher right now and not married to a super model. These are things you forget about sometimes because of how great Brady & Belichick are now.
None of that probably would have been possible if Drew Bledsoe didn’t think he was Kordell Stewart.