https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/mo-lewis-blames-drew-bledsoe-for-hit-that-launched-the-tom-brady-era
The impact was devastating. But the hit was clean.
If anyone blames former Jets linebacker Mo Lewis for blowing up Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe and opening the door to the Tom Brady era, they shouldn’t.
Lewis, for his part, blames Bledsoe.
Via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com, Lewis finally addressed the matter for the new book from Gary Myers, Brady vs. Belichick.
“[Bledsoe] just signed a $100 million deal to be what type of quarterback?” Lewis told Myers. “A passing quarterback, correct? Had he not got outside the pocket and ran with the ball, would we be talking about this? Who caused the event? The person who was with the ball.
“Now he’s doing what he didn’t sign up for. He signed up to be a passing quarterback. What do I do? I stop the people with the ball. It’s just another play for me. But it’s a different play for him.”
As explained by Cimini, Lewis has avoided the spotlight since retiring. Former teammates say Lewis feels slighted because he’s remembered only for the hit on Bledsoe.
“It’s really irrelevant to me,” Lewis told Myers. “It was just another play to me. To you all, it’s a big game-changing, history-changing play. I’ve never gone back to watch the play. If people want to talk about it, I don’t hide from it. But it has no importance to me.”
Lewis is right about the play. Watch it. Bledsoe leaves the pocket. He runs along the sideline. He seems to consider going out of bounds. He decides to try to gain a first down.
Lewis didn’t go in head first. He lowered a shoulder and put it into Brady’s side. It was legal and clean.
He said he didn’t check on Bledsoe because he didn’t think anything of it.
“I’m not trying to be an asshole,” Lewis said. “I’m on the field. I’m not a doctor. I do not know the severity of that hit. It was just another hit. I’m a linebacker. I make tackles. I do not gauge how hard or how soft I hit a person. What you’re trying to do is make me see the future after the hit. I’m telling you, I’m not looking down the line. I’m just trying to stop him from getting a first down. Period.”
He should have said “exclamation point.” Because he’s right. Lewis did his job. Bledsoe put himself in harm’s way. He could have gone out of bounds. He could have slid. He could have fallen down.
Bledsoe took the hit. If he’d known what the consequences would be, he surely wouldn’t have done it.
That’s the real takeaway from the episode that happened nearly 24 years ago. Quarterbacks who take hits they don’t have to take are assuming the risk that the hit could, as it did for Bledsoe, shear a blood vessel in his chest and open the door for the next man up.
And if the next man up is good enough, the quarterback who took the hit may remain out long after he has healed.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/mo-lewis-blames-drew-bledsoe-for-hit-that-launched-the-tom-brady-era
