Drew
I was reading the new Street & Smith's Pro Football annual last night. I buy every NFL annual - it's a weakness. The S&S annual has a section in the beginning that lists all-time records for major statistical categories, and shows which active players are climbing the various lists. And there, with 251 TD passes, 44,611 yards, 3,839 completions, and 6,717 attempts, was Drew Bledsoe.
And it struck me that those are his final numbers. He's retired. Done.
I remember vividly when Drew was a big lunk-headed rookie. He had that confident lope of a star athlete. He was polished in any interview, born to the podium. He was the Guy. He knew it. You knew it.
Under new head coach Bill Parcelles and new local-boy owner Robert Kraft, the Patriots had changed. There was a distinct feeling of hope. These guys were real pro's - the kind you see on TV.
The years after the Pats 1985 Super Bowl run had not been kind. The quality of the team had steadily drained and the team was becoming as pale and lifeless as Mr. Orange at the end of Reservoir Dogs. Rod Rust and Dick MacPherson were coaching the likes of Mark Wilson and Michael Timpson. The team was sold and re-sold and moving and then staying.
Kraft and the Tuna changed that. And they brought in Drew (thanks to MacPherson's 1-15 season).
What makes me the most nostalgic about the time is the sense of promise in the whole affair. Drew (and we just called him "Drew") had it all. He could be a Marino, a Favre, a Fouts. He could have been anything. He stood tall in the pocket and fired the ball like an F-14 shooting off a carrier. A flick of the wrist and a perfect spiral darted to its target.
Were there any limits to what he could do? Where once the Patriots were a team with no floor - no limit to the depths they could fall to - they were now a team without a ceiling. With a Super Bowl coach like Parcelles and a Bradshaw-like kid QB, Pats fans were back in the game.
That feeling lasted until they actually got to the Super Bowl in 1996. Like 1985, the hangover from the loss was terrible. Where the 85 team had faced charges of drug use, the 96 team disintegrated - even before the game - by the greed of the coach.
Parcelles spent his Super Bowl in negotiations to take over the rival NY Jets. On the eve of the biggest game in team history, Parcelles was not preparing his team for victory, he was preparing his Broker for a windfall.
Disgraceful.
It was after that that Pats fans started noticing the flaws in their saviour. With the Tuna gone and boy coach Pete Carroll in town, Drew was the media star. To the jaded and paid-for Boston media, they either hated or loved Drew. The ones whop loved him never stopped their affair, and would support him to this day.
But the rest of us saw the guy who played poorly in playoff games and pressure situations. He had the swagger of a Brett Favre, but not nearly the numbers. For all his obvious physical skills, he was only at his best when everything else was going right.
Given an effective running game, a good offensive line, and decent receivers, he could be a monster. But given all those other factors, who wouldn't be? In the Pete years, the line faltered, and we saw painfully that Drew could not avoid a rush, especially up the middle. Lesser WR's could not get open enough and couldn't reel in the slightly off-target bullets that Drew flung at them. And without a decent back to scare defenses, they came at him - hard.
Drew stood up to it all. His numbers dropped further and he was no longer considered a franchise quarterback anywhere outside his own living room. In a 1999 7-6 playoff loss in Pittsburgh, it was clear: Drew wasn't getting it done.
Ironically, it was Parcell's understudy who teamed with Drew's understudy to create the Patriots Dynasty. Bill Belichick got out from under Parcells shadow, and ended up pulling Tom Brady from Drew's - and winning Super Bowl 36 with Bledsoe on the sideline.
Drew was traded to Buffalo for a first-round draft pick. That served to remind Drew that he was the Guy, and he had a career year in Buffalo. But he'd reverted to form by the end of 2002, and was his predictable self for the next two seasons, until the Bills cashiered him.
He had a decent season with the Cowboys under his first pro coach - Bill Parcelles. His breakout season with the Pats in 1996 had produced a 83.7 rating, rising to 87.7 in 1997, but dropping to 75.6 later. His first season in Buffalo produced an 86.0, but his second was a 73.0. In the same way, his first season in Dallas was back to 83.7 (how's that for consistency?), but he was benched halfway through the next season with a 69.2.
And then he quit. He did not do what his fellow first-overall QB did - Vinny Testaverde. Vinny was content to carry a clipboard and start occasionally as a backup after hist starting days were over. But Vinny'd faced his own limitation far earlier in his career than Drew.
Drew always though of himself as the lone figure on the podium, explaining to an eager press mob what had happened on the field that day. His statements always sounded like a Press Release.
He was by habit and by nature the Starter. And, even though he only lived up to about 80% of fans' expectations, he will not be reduced to playing mentor the way Kurt Warner has (for Eli Manning and Matt Leinart).
Perhaps that's because of Brady. Drew was crushed when Brady took the starting QB job following Drew's injury in 2001. And at the time he was credited with showing uncommon class even though he was terribly disappointed.
Later stories painted him as far less saintly, but whatever he did or didn't do to support Brady, it worked and the Pats won.
But it may be that experience, and his undoubted financial security, that has led him to walk away from the game entirely. There is simply no market for his services as a starting QB in the NFL. And that's all he's willing to do.
He was never the try-hard guy who would do anything to make the squad. His high school coach was his father, and he was a huge start in college. He surely paid dues along the way, but not to the union of guys who would do anything to stay in the league.
So goodbye, Drew. The league will be less interesting without you. Neither of us could have guessed where your career would go. You have a Super Bowl ring you won on the bench - which is more than Dan Marino has. You didn't become the legend we had hoped for, but you were a great warm-up act for the Hall of Famer who is the Main Event in New England.
And it struck me that those are his final numbers. He's retired. Done.
I remember vividly when Drew was a big lunk-headed rookie. He had that confident lope of a star athlete. He was polished in any interview, born to the podium. He was the Guy. He knew it. You knew it.
Under new head coach Bill Parcelles and new local-boy owner Robert Kraft, the Patriots had changed. There was a distinct feeling of hope. These guys were real pro's - the kind you see on TV.
The years after the Pats 1985 Super Bowl run had not been kind. The quality of the team had steadily drained and the team was becoming as pale and lifeless as Mr. Orange at the end of Reservoir Dogs. Rod Rust and Dick MacPherson were coaching the likes of Mark Wilson and Michael Timpson. The team was sold and re-sold and moving and then staying.
Kraft and the Tuna changed that. And they brought in Drew (thanks to MacPherson's 1-15 season).
What makes me the most nostalgic about the time is the sense of promise in the whole affair. Drew (and we just called him "Drew") had it all. He could be a Marino, a Favre, a Fouts. He could have been anything. He stood tall in the pocket and fired the ball like an F-14 shooting off a carrier. A flick of the wrist and a perfect spiral darted to its target.
Were there any limits to what he could do? Where once the Patriots were a team with no floor - no limit to the depths they could fall to - they were now a team without a ceiling. With a Super Bowl coach like Parcelles and a Bradshaw-like kid QB, Pats fans were back in the game.
That feeling lasted until they actually got to the Super Bowl in 1996. Like 1985, the hangover from the loss was terrible. Where the 85 team had faced charges of drug use, the 96 team disintegrated - even before the game - by the greed of the coach.
Parcelles spent his Super Bowl in negotiations to take over the rival NY Jets. On the eve of the biggest game in team history, Parcelles was not preparing his team for victory, he was preparing his Broker for a windfall.
Disgraceful.
It was after that that Pats fans started noticing the flaws in their saviour. With the Tuna gone and boy coach Pete Carroll in town, Drew was the media star. To the jaded and paid-for Boston media, they either hated or loved Drew. The ones whop loved him never stopped their affair, and would support him to this day.
But the rest of us saw the guy who played poorly in playoff games and pressure situations. He had the swagger of a Brett Favre, but not nearly the numbers. For all his obvious physical skills, he was only at his best when everything else was going right.
Given an effective running game, a good offensive line, and decent receivers, he could be a monster. But given all those other factors, who wouldn't be? In the Pete years, the line faltered, and we saw painfully that Drew could not avoid a rush, especially up the middle. Lesser WR's could not get open enough and couldn't reel in the slightly off-target bullets that Drew flung at them. And without a decent back to scare defenses, they came at him - hard.
Drew stood up to it all. His numbers dropped further and he was no longer considered a franchise quarterback anywhere outside his own living room. In a 1999 7-6 playoff loss in Pittsburgh, it was clear: Drew wasn't getting it done.
Ironically, it was Parcell's understudy who teamed with Drew's understudy to create the Patriots Dynasty. Bill Belichick got out from under Parcells shadow, and ended up pulling Tom Brady from Drew's - and winning Super Bowl 36 with Bledsoe on the sideline.
Drew was traded to Buffalo for a first-round draft pick. That served to remind Drew that he was the Guy, and he had a career year in Buffalo. But he'd reverted to form by the end of 2002, and was his predictable self for the next two seasons, until the Bills cashiered him.
He had a decent season with the Cowboys under his first pro coach - Bill Parcelles. His breakout season with the Pats in 1996 had produced a 83.7 rating, rising to 87.7 in 1997, but dropping to 75.6 later. His first season in Buffalo produced an 86.0, but his second was a 73.0. In the same way, his first season in Dallas was back to 83.7 (how's that for consistency?), but he was benched halfway through the next season with a 69.2.
And then he quit. He did not do what his fellow first-overall QB did - Vinny Testaverde. Vinny was content to carry a clipboard and start occasionally as a backup after hist starting days were over. But Vinny'd faced his own limitation far earlier in his career than Drew.
Drew always though of himself as the lone figure on the podium, explaining to an eager press mob what had happened on the field that day. His statements always sounded like a Press Release.
He was by habit and by nature the Starter. And, even though he only lived up to about 80% of fans' expectations, he will not be reduced to playing mentor the way Kurt Warner has (for Eli Manning and Matt Leinart).
Perhaps that's because of Brady. Drew was crushed when Brady took the starting QB job following Drew's injury in 2001. And at the time he was credited with showing uncommon class even though he was terribly disappointed.
Later stories painted him as far less saintly, but whatever he did or didn't do to support Brady, it worked and the Pats won.
But it may be that experience, and his undoubted financial security, that has led him to walk away from the game entirely. There is simply no market for his services as a starting QB in the NFL. And that's all he's willing to do.
He was never the try-hard guy who would do anything to make the squad. His high school coach was his father, and he was a huge start in college. He surely paid dues along the way, but not to the union of guys who would do anything to stay in the league.
So goodbye, Drew. The league will be less interesting without you. Neither of us could have guessed where your career would go. You have a Super Bowl ring you won on the bench - which is more than Dan Marino has. You didn't become the legend we had hoped for, but you were a great warm-up act for the Hall of Famer who is the Main Event in New England.
posted by fiduciary at 11:43 AM
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