The GOATest Story Ever Told, Chapter 4: The Tom Brady Era Began 20 Years Ago Today

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

For some time now, I've been operating on this one theory (among many) to explain how we all got to where we are. How the franchise I have an emotional connection to went from (mostly) losers to (mostly) champions. From largely irrelevant to hyper-relevant. And how I went with them from a guy with a decent state job, two preschool aged kids and a small foothold in a Patriots message board to covering the team for the world's greatest website and two published books about them. (Cha-CHING.) 

And this particular theory goes that, sometime in 2001, I was watching a Patriots game in the downstairs den, slipped on the tile floor, whacked by head on the wood stove and the last 20 years are all just a dream I'm having. A manifestation of my subconscious brain, living out its wildest fantasy. And that eventually I'm going to be slapped into consciousness and wake up with zero rings and have to drag my lazy state worker ass back to the courthouse Monday morning. 

If I had to pinpoint one moment where I think the incident happened, it was 20 years ago on this very day:

To set the scene, in case you don't know the background, the Patriots were facing the Jets in an incredibly emotional, historically cathartic day at Foxboro. The NFL had canceled the previous week's games due to 9/11, and the Patriots were hosting one of the teams representing the city that was the most devastated. The pregame ceremony featured not just the giant, almost field-sized American flag every stadium had, but also the brothers of Patriots guard Joe Andruzzi, who were FDNY and barely made it out of the collapsing towers with their lives. Simply unforgettable. 

Bill Belichick was in his second year as head coach. He was 0-1 on the season, making him 5-12 in his New England career. That make the Pats 7-18 going back to the last half of Pete Carroll's last season. Belichick's and Scott Pioli's main objective of his first season was trying to tunnel out of salary cap Shawshank the previous administration had put the franchise in. And it meant crawling through 500 yards of shit smelling foulness I can't even imagine, or maybe I just don't want to. Because so much of his payroll was tied up in guaranteed money paid out to guys who were no longer with the team, he couldn't even clear space by cutting guys. 

Also handcuffing him was the deal that VP Andy Wasynczuk had just signed Drew Bledsoe to, the richest contract to that point in NFL history. Though not everyone was sold on Bledsoe. Fans were divided on him. There is plenty of evidence to suggest the coaches were souring on him as well. Where they had carried an unheard-of four quarterbacks on the roster the previous year, by 2001 the guy on the bottom of that depth chart was now the No. 2. To what extent the coaches were considering making the switch from Bledsoe to Tom Brady - if they were at all - is known only to them. 

What we do know for historic fact is that Mo Lewis settled the issue once and for all with that vicious, though very much clean and legal hit on Bledsoe. He had to come out. Brady came in. Eight weeks later, Bledsoe was cleared to play. Belichick made the decision to stick with Brady and never looked back. 

A few things about what happened after that hit by Lewis that changed the course of Patriots, NFL and world history:

--The way Bledsoe reacted to it made it look like it wasn't all that serious. Just a big, not terribly mobile quarterback taking a shot in the 10-ring and shaking it off. Even though the laws of physics say that in a collision, the impulse encountered by an object (Bledsoe) is equal to the momentum change it experiences. The formula being:

F • t = m • ∆v

With F being force, meaning both players running full speed, m equal to the 260 pound mass of Lewis, and v standing both for Bledsoe's unwillingness to quit on the play and for how massive a hit he chose to absorb trying to gain an extra yard rather than take the easy way out and step out of bounds. 

--Incredibly, and as a testament to Bledsoe's toughness level, he didn't even come out of the game. The Pats and Jets exchanged punts and he came back out for another set of downs. He even picked up a 1st down before running back Marc Edwards fumbled. It wasn't until Bledsoe went to the sidelines that anyone realized something was amiss. Brady checked on him and found him, what in a less enlightened time a boxing announcer would called "on Queer Street." Confused to the point of incoherence. "What do we do with the 'Check with me'?" he asked his backup. "What are the 'Check with mes'?" Brady alerted the coaches and the training staff pulled him. 

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--No one realized the extent of Bledsoe's injuries, but they turned out to life-threatening in the most literal sense. The Lewis hit split his aorta laterally, meaning lengthwise. And his chest was filling up with blood. The Boston Globe later interviewed a thoracic surgeon from Mass General who was on call that day watching the game. He said he told his wife that his pager (Google it, kids) would go off any minute and he'd be called into do emergency surgery on Bledsoe. Whether that part is true or not, we do know that when the good doctor cut the QB open, he found half of his blood had drained into his body cavity. 

--The game itself wasn't anything to page your friends about. (I'm assuming you did look it up.) The Jets won 10-3. The Patriots got the ball on their own 26 with 2:13 left. In Brady's one drive under center, he led them down to the Jets 29 with 0:14 left before four straight incompletions ended it.  That left him with a stat line of 5-for-10 with 46 yards in his first significant action as a pro. It would be three more weeks before he'd post impressive numbers or even throw a touchdown pass. But those would be the first of quite a few. 

--In an odd footnote to this game, there was a call by the officials that went completely overlooked, but would shake the Earth to its foundations when it was repeated months later. With a minute to go in the half, Jets QB Vinny Testaverde stepped up into a collapsing pocket only to get stripped by Pats LB Anthony Pleasant, Patriots ball. Except the replay official wanted to take another look at it and ruled that Testaverde had brought the ball close to his body and overturned the call. Incomplete pass. That would be a little thing later known as The Tuck Rule. You don't get that kind of foreshadowing in a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel. 

You know the rest. At least the broad strokes. And I'll keep revisiting the 2001 season because there were a million little moments that gave birth to this Dynasty. That is, if it really happened. If it didn't and I'm dreaming, I'm taking the blue pill and staying right where I am.