In comparing his benching last week in favor of Tony Romo to losing his Patriots gig in 2001 to Tom Brady, Cowboys QB Drew Bledsoe has again again attacked the credibility of the Hooded Casanova. The Boston Herald’s Michael Felger takes considerable umbrage.
Where™s former colleague Kevin Mannix when you need him? The Professor had a name for Bledsoe and his loyal supporters/excuse makers, and now that Bledsoe has decided to dive back into history, perhaps it™s time to set the record straight with the Boo Hoo Drew Crew.
Let™s say Bledsoe is right and Belichick œlied to him, telling the former franchise quarterback that he would have all the time he needed to win his job back from Tom Brady in November of 2001 after nearly being killed by the hellacious hit from Jets linebacker Mo Lewis. If Belichick did, in fact, say that, then he certainly didn™t carry it out for long, because within a week of that alleged conversation, Belichick called both Bledsoe and Brady back into his office and told them Brady would be the starter the rest of the year.
Belichick had decided that it was unproductive to split practice reps. He realized you can™t have two starting quarterbacks. Above all — do we really need to go back over this? — he knew that Brady was clearly the better player.
According to David Halberstam™s book, œThe Education of a Coach, Bledsoe responded by running to Robert Kraft and telling the owner that his coach was a liar. Then, near the end of the season, Bledsoe went back to Belichick and lobbied for his job again. Wrote Halberstam: œ(Bledsoe) told him that he thought the team needed an experienced quarterback for the playoffs, that they could not win in the playoffs with a rookie quarterback.
Nice call.
Anyway, if Bledsoe craves honesty so much, we™ll provide a brief transcript of what Belichick — if he were being truly, truly honest — could have told Bledsoe during that initial meeting in the coach™s office at old Foxboro Stadium:
œI don™t think you™re that good, Drew. Never have. You are, in fact, one of the easiest quarterbacks to defend in the NFL. When I was with the Jets, Bill Parcells and I looked forward to playing you. You can™t move, don™t read coverages well and have never been able to handle teams that blitz you up the middle.”