As Drew Bledsoe is about to be inducted into the New England Patriots' Hall of Fame, I thought it a perfect time to revisit what has now become an overlooked and underrated career. How many occasions can you think of where a player on the way to a professional Hall of Fame career was replaced by one of the greatest of all time at that position? This is the situation for Drew, though you wouldn't know it from talking to him. He's walked quietly away from the game without complaint.
I say "on his way to the HOF" because who's to say what kind of numbers he could have finished with had he played even a majority of his games for good teams or, better yet, had been given the opportunity to play for the Patriot teams Tom Brady played for. No, he's not nor ever would be Tom Brady; but I argue Bledsoe would have been a clear Hall of Famer had he not spent much of his career either on his back or having to play quarterback much in the way that Dan Marino had to -- sling it for better or for worse and take lots of chances. Look at Bledsoe's statistics when he was carrying the Patriots and Bills and then compare then to Marino's. No, he wasn't Marino either but I contend he was well on his way...make your own conclusions.
Here is a great quote by Patriots owner Robert Kraft that says what I've been trying to say.
”Drew Bledsoe played such an integral role in our efforts to rebuild the Patriots brand,” Kraft said in a press release. ”He gave fans hope for the future and provided many memorable moments during his record-breaking career. I will never forget Drew’s record-setting performance in that come-from-behind victory against Minnesota the year I bought the team. It sparked a seven-game win streak and put the Patriots back in the playoffs for the first time in a decade. For a franchise that had only hosted one playoff game in its first 35 years, winning the AFC Championship Game at home in Foxboro and taking the Patriots to the playoffs for three consecutive years were unimaginable goals prior to his arrival.”
Drew could sling it. Tom Brady's 517 yards passing this past weekend broke Bledsoe's team record. You probably thought Brady already held that record.
UPDATE: I'll come back to add more, as I lost my train of thought as I wrote this initially but here's a link to an opinion piece that I think is worth reading. This writer argues that Bledsoe is worthy of enshrinement in Canton. I think he needed a couple more good years and a playoff run to secure that but this writer makes very good points. But the worth of a player is not all in the stats (see the Kraft quote for an example) and also just watching week in and week out over a player's career.
2 comments:
Bledsoe was just one of many people that had HOF talent but for one reason or another could never show it on the field for a consistent period of time.
As for being on bad teams that cause his talent to be underrated, you can see that in Rich Gannon and Randall Cunningham just to name two QBs that are ahead of Bledsoe on the QB scale and did play on some bad teams. Hell, I'd put him with Steve DeBerg in the QB ratings. You want to see a QB on perennially bad teams, there is the guy that played on them. SF before Walsh and Montana, the Bucs teams of the 80's, Denver of the 80's, and finally KC and was there finally when the Chiefs became good.
Rich Gannon was a good pro and if Drew had more Gannon in him, he'd be a lock HOFer. That said, he nor Cunningham, both of whom I like a lot, are not nearly in the same league as Bledsoe. I suspect we'll continue to disagree but the numbers are on my side. I added a little update since you commented. I should go and compare Bledsoe's numbers to Favre's.
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