2002-04-26 - 1:50 p.m.
Well...at least the jersey's still the right color.
Most of you all know that I am an unapologizing Boston Sports Fan. I root for the Red Sox, the Patriots, and the Bruins pretty darned passionately.
I don't claim the Celtics, was too easy to root for them in the 80's, and basketball just plain sucks anyhow.
Being a Boston sports fan in the 80's and 90's was a series of dissapointments one after the other. The Bruins just...well...weren't managed well. The Red Sox just took your heart and crushed it under their heels year after year, and the Patriots...well...aside from "Squish the Fish" in 1986, they were largely an embarassment.
Then a Quarterback from Washington came along. And he was good, real good.
He singlehandedly brought the team back from a 28 point deficit against Minnesota, throwing something like 43 straight passes, and won.
He led the team to the Super Bowl in 96, giving the Packers a pretty darned good game...yeah, we lost, but man, it was close right up until that kickoff...
Then there was Tunagate, and the Jets rivalry, and the team settled into a mediocre run, but you always knew that Drew was there, and Drew was God, and that was worth watching.
This past year the Patriots were expected to do...well...nothing. I'm reminded of the line from Major League "A lot of sportswriters have picked us to finish dead last...in fact, they think we could just save everybody a bunch of time if we just went off and shot ourselves."
Then, in the second game of the season Drew got tackled hard (but legal) by a Jet, and sheared an artery in his lung, and almost died.
So, needless to say he was on the disabled list for a while (Football players are tough, but not *that* tough).
And this punk from Michigan named Tom Brady comes in, and the Patriots start winning.
Tom himself is just an average, at best, quarterback. The reason the Patriots won was because they a> found a running back, b> found an offensive line, and c> had the special teams year to die for.
Give Drew any of those tools and he could have won every single game by about 10 points or more...but the sportswriters annointed Tom the chosen one.
In November, Drew was ready to come back and play, but the starter job had already been given to Tom.
Drew could have acted like a petulant child and hurt the team. Instead, he tutored Tom and showed him the ropes, all the while hoping he would get a shot to get his old job back.
Tom was hurt in the AFC Championship game, and Drew came in and won that game pretty darned well.
The following week, the Patriots won the Super Bowl, with Tom as the quarterback. Tom won the MVP for the game, although many think it should have gone to the defense.
So what was Drew to do? All he could do was stand on the sidelines and wish.
Last weekend, Drew got traded to the Buffalo Bills.
He put a very nice ad in the Boston papers today, basically saying thanbks to the fans and that he'll miss us.
I'll miss him too. Gina bought me a Drew Bledsoe jersey for Christmas. Apparently she bought it just before it was announced that he wasn't the starting QB anymore. I never got to wear it while watching him play for the Patriots.
I really hope he does well...just not against the Pats.
Part of me actually wants him to come in and just kick New England's ass when they play, and then stride across the field, decapitate Bill Belichik with a football, rip Tom Brady's jersey off his back and scream "I AM THE QUARTERBACK...YOU MORTALS FEAR ME!!!"
But, alas, I'm a Patriots fan...so I'll really hope that he does well, but loses.
Now I know how da Puck Eater Aradd must have felt when Lindros left the Flyers. You want him to do well, but you wish he could be doing well for your team.
Like I said, at least the jersey he'll be wearing is still Blue.
Thanks Drew...you made watching the Patriots worth the effort for 8 years. It's just sad that next year, when watching them will be easy, you won't be there.
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