15 yrs.. Mo Lewis, Drew Bledsoe & a game ~ ~ ~

[kelly]

-- Ray Mickens was only a few yards away from The Hit That Changed the NFL.

"Man, it was a thump," Mickens recalled Thursday.

The thumper was New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, and the thumpee was New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe. It happened 15 years ago Friday -- Sept. 23, 2001 -- and ... well, you know the deal.Out went Bledsoe, in came a gangly kid from Michigan, Tom Brady. The Jets won the game 10-3, but the Patriots won the season (a Super Bowl championship), the decade (two more titles) and the era (a total of four Super Bowl titles -- so far).

Look, I get it, this isn't a joyous memory for Jets fans, but an anniversary is an anniversary. Truth is, Brady was closing the gap on Bledsoe and would've replaced him at some point; Lewis simply accelerated it with a hit that nearly killed Bledsoe. He left the locker room on a gurney, his chest filling with blood because of a sheared vessel. I was there; I saw them load Bledsoe into an ambulance after the game.

"It wasn't a helmet-to-helmet hit, it was body-to-body," Mickens said. "There's a difference between them. You can hear the difference. This was a loud thump. I remember Drew wasn't getting up and I remember celebrating with Mo."They weren't celebrating Bledsoe's injury -- they had no idea he was badly hurt -- but rather the hit. It was vicious, but clean, stopping Bledsoe 2 yards shy of a first down on a third-and-10 scramble. He actually returned for the next possession before yielding to Brady, who played the final series of the game.

No one knew it at the time, but it was the birth of a dynasty.

"We were playing to win the game, we weren't playing for years into the future," said Mickens, the reliable former nickelback.It has spawned one of the great what-if questions in NFL history: What if Lewis hadn't wiped out Bledsoe on that postcard New England afternoon?"If you want to go there," Mickens said, "why not ask, 'How'd we let [Bill] Belichick get out of New York?'"

That's a story for another day.

>       http://www.espn.com/blog/new-york-jets/post/_/id/63311/15-year-anniversary-of-lewis-bledsoe-jets-pats-game-that-changed-history

[NYCfan]

No one who knows anything about the game has ever said it was a dirty hit; it was a hard hit, but clean.  Bledsoe was trying to extend the play to pick up the First Down, as he has said, and he was fair game in bounds.  But, it was more than a thump.  Here's a piece from SI on the "anniversary" of the play.  

http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/09/22/drew-bledsoe-hit-tom-brady-mo-lewis-jets

[Beerfish]

Thanks for the Friday morning kick in the nuts.

[LWC611]

I remember that game like it was yesterday.... Not the best memory....

[UnitedWhofans]

The Mo Lewis thing is overrated. Bledsoe was on his way out of NE already. All the Jets did was speed up the process a bit, but Brady would still become Brady

[nyjunc]

4 minutes ago, UnitedWhofans said:

The Mo Lewis thing is overrated. Bledsoe was on his way out of NE already. All the Jets did was speed up the process a bit, but Brady would still become Brady

it's very overrated, BB seat was getting hot.  they were going to Brady sooner than later.  it may have delayed the dynasty by a year but Brady was coming soon.

[kelly]

1 hour ago, Beerfish said:

Thanks for the Friday morning kick in the nuts.

..................................................................................................YOU're  ^ ^  welcome ! ! 

 

 

cheers ~ ~ 

 

[SAR I]

I was at the game, remember it vividly, happened right in front of me.

I also remember I was wearing my Chad Pennington jersey and was taking crap from a guy behind me teasing me for wearing a jersey of a backup quarterback. And then in came his backup quarterback.  Irony.

I also remember walking back along Route 1 after the game heading to the doctors office where I parked my car and hearing an ambulance scream by at blazing speed thinking it was Bledsoe and it turned out to be correct.

What people do not remember is that this game was not the turning point.  The turning point happened at the second Patriots game, December 2, 2001.  That was the day the fortunes of our franchises changed.  Jets had a 13 point halftime lead over the Pats, we were about to go 8-3 and leave the Pats in our dust at 6-6 but no, Testaverde goes 18 for 32 with 2 INT's, Brady goes 20 for 28 and scores on the last three drives of the game, we lose, Bellichick gets his first win against the Jets after 3 straight losses, Patriots get home field, Patriots win the Super Bowl.

That was the painful moment.  13 point lead at home in December to take full control of the division.  Testaverde played like a bum, gave the game away.   Read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/sports/pro-football-jets-swagger-turns-to-a-stagger.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/hoping-not-jets-remember-decembers-article-1.925492

SAR I

[Flushing Roots]

1 hour ago, kelly said:

..................................................................................................YOU're  ^ ^  welcome ! ! 

 

 

cheers ~ ~ 

 

I'd rather have the one in the back kick me in the nuts.

[Flushing Roots]

I hope they gave Mo a SB ring that year.

He was their MVP.

[Beerfish]

I don't think it is overrated at all.  I don't for a moment believe there was a solid blueprint to have Brady replace Bledsoe outright.  This game is all about getting lucky at the right time and seizing your chance.  Some guys get lucky and get the oppo, others don't.  We have no idea how long bledsoe would have lasted, how loyal to him Belly was and what the repercussion of him not getting hurt would be.

[kelly]

1 hour ago, Flushing Roots said:

I'd rather have the one in the back kick me in the nuts.

..with boots on ~ ~ 

 

 

cheers ~ ~ 

[Green DNA]

3 hours ago, SAR I said:

I was at the game, remember it vividly, happened right in front of me.

I also remember I was wearing my Chad Pennington jersey and was taking crap from a guy behind me teasing me for wearing a jersey of a backup quarterback. And then in came his backup quarterback.  Irony.

I also remember walking back along Route 1 after the game heading to the doctors office where I parked my car and hearing an ambulance scream by at blazing speed thinking it was Bledsoe and it turned out to be correct.

What people do not remember is that this game was not the turning point.  The turning point happened at the second Patriots game, December 2, 2001.  That was the day the fortunes of our franchises changed.  Jets had a 13 point halftime lead over the Pats, we were about to go 8-3 and leave the Pats in our dust at 6-6 but no, Testaverde goes 18 for 32 with 2 INT's, Brady goes 20 for 28 and scores on the last three drives of the game, we lose, Bellichick gets his first win against the Jets after 3 straight losses, Patriots get home field, Patriots win the Super Bowl.

That was the painful moment.  13 point lead at home in December to take full control of the division.  Testaverde played like a bum, gave the game away.   Read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/sports/pro-football-jets-swagger-turns-to-a-stagger.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/hoping-not-jets-remember-decembers-article-1.925492

SAR I

I was also at that game and I remember being pretty happy that this total unknown was coming in to play QB for the Pats.  Who effin knew.  The Patriots fans were actually being civil because it was right after 9/11.  That was their last season in the old dump.  I also remember the ambulance flying by, but it didn't hit me until later when I saw the news that it was Bledsoe in the back. 

[Bugg]

9 hours ago, SAR I said:

I was at the game, remember it vividly, happened right in front of me.

I also remember I was wearing my Chad Pennington jersey and was taking crap from a guy behind me teasing me for wearing a jersey of a backup quarterback. And then in came his backup quarterback.  Irony.

I also remember walking back along Route 1 after the game heading to the doctors office where I parked my car and hearing an ambulance scream by at blazing speed thinking it was Bledsoe and it turned out to be correct.

What people do not remember is that this game was not the turning point.  The turning point happened at the second Patriots game, December 2, 2001.  That was the day the fortunes of our franchises changed.  Jets had a 13 point halftime lead over the Pats, we were about to go 8-3 and leave the Pats in our dust at 6-6 but no, Testaverde goes 18 for 32 with 2 INT's, Brady goes 20 for 28 and scores on the last three drives of the game, we lose, Bellichick gets his first win against the Jets after 3 straight losses, Patriots get home field, Patriots win the Super Bowl.

That was the painful moment.  13 point lead at home in December to take full control of the division.  Testaverde played like a bum, gave the game away.   Read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/03/sports/pro-football-jets-swagger-turns-to-a-stagger.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/hoping-not-jets-remember-decembers-article-1.925492

SAR I

Herm and Hackett trying to jam big passer Testaverde into the WCO while Pennington Before the injury was in many ways a very good WCO pinpoint passer. What a couple of turds.

[win4ever]

I remember watching this game on TV when Bledsoe got injured, and being somewhat happy because I was a Michigan fan so I recognized Tom Brady.  I figured he would be a game manager type for the Pats, and he was mostly that the first year, but then evolved into a star.