Freezing cold takes, p.21
Freezing Cold Takes, page 21
After the Super Bowl, the Patriots fully committed to Tom Brady at quarterback and traded Bledsoe to division rival Buffalo. In August 2002, the Patriots rewarded Brady with a four-year, $28 million contract extension.
“The New England Patriots got very benevolent or very cocky or very stupid” (2002)
With the Super Bowl champion label planted squarely on their backs, the 2002 Patriots season started with a bang. New England shot out to a 3–0 record and Brady continued where he left off, looking every bit the championship quarterback. That changed quickly. Beginning Week 4, the Patriots took a nosedive, and they lost four straight games. During that stretch, the offense struggled mightily, averaging only 13 points per game. Brady threw seven interceptions.
Some critics thought New England was relying on Brady to throw the ball significantly more than the previous year. In 2001, the Patriots’ offense maintained a close to even balance of running and passing plays, and were able to control the pace of the game. In 2002, the team saw less balance and became more predictable. Brady’s pass attempt numbers skyrocketed, though most of throws were short passes and screens. Defenses wised up and used different zone coverages, which forced Brady into more downfield throws with smaller windows.
During the losing streak, fans didn’t hold back their discontent. After Brady threw three interceptions during a Week 6 loss to Green Bay in Foxboro, he was booed off the field by the home crowd. The critics started to dig in. “Tom Brady looks nothing like the man who took [the Patriots] to the Super Bowl,” wrote Charles Bricker in the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel.
His coach wasn’t coming off so great, either. The Patriots’ defense, which was Belichick’s specialty, couldn’t stop anybody. Particularly the run defense. It was porous. By early October, New England’s defense was allowing 5.6 yards per play. In Weeks 3 and 4, against Kansas City and San Diego, respectively, the Pats gave up a combined 459 yards on the ground. As the team struggled to maintain their winning ways from the Super Bowl, some of the local media spent much of the season wondering if Belichick was as smart as he was given credit for in February when he hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans. “How could Belichick, the widely proclaimed defensive genius, have a team that can’t do the most basic thing in football stop the run?” asked Jim Donaldson in the Providence Journal. In the Boston Herald, Kevin Mannix wondered if “there is a statute of limitations regarding genius.”
Of all the Patriots’ fodder in 2002, the most popular topic was whether the Patriots made the right decision trading Bledsoe and committing to Brady. The subject was particularly interesting during the first half of the season, because Brady was struggling and Bledsoe was prospering. During the same period where the Patriots suffered four losses in a row, Bledsoe’s Buffalo Bills team had a 3–1 record. By the end of Week 8, Buffalo had more wins (five) than they did in all of 2001 (three). Halfway through the season, Bledsoe had thrown 16 touchdowns, had only five interceptions, and was leading the NFL in passing yards. The national media began to take notice. On NFL.com, former NFL coach and administrator Pat Kirwan gave out “Midseason Awards,” and tabbed Bledsoe as Offensive MVP. He also awarded the Best Offseason Trade to the Bills for its trade for Bledsoe.
Bledsoe’s play was all the rage. In late September, on Boston-area channel WBZ-TV’s Sunday evening show Sports Final, local radio personality Scott Zolak, a former Patriots quarterback and Bledsoe teammate, said that he was twice as impressed about how Bledsoe had been playing with Buffalo as he was at how Brady was playing with New England. A week later, veteran Globe columnist Nick Cafardo said on local TV that Bledsoe (1) was clearly a superior quarterback to Brady, (2) was much more clutch than Brady, and (3) would have already replaced Brady as the starter if he were still on the Patriots. Even players on rival teams chimed in. Miami Dolphins all-pro defensive end Jason Taylor was annoyed that the Patriots helped another AFC East team improve. “I don’t understand why New England traded [Bledsoe] to Buffalo,” Taylor said. “It was kind of a stupid move on their part. Now we’re stuck playing against him again. He’s playing unbelievably.”
Buffalo-area writers weren’t shy, either. (Rochester, New York) Democrat and Chronicle Bills writer Sal Maiorana wrote that the Patriots made the wrong choice. “I just think that he is a better quarterback than Brady,” he wrote. “Bledsoe is only 30, he’s going to be around for quite a while, and I know the Bills are happy the way things turned out.” At the end of October, (Syracuse, New York) Post-Standard columnist Bud Poliquin gleefully wrote about the Bills rebirth. If not for the Patriots shipping Bledsoe off to Buffalo, the 2002 season, Poliquin believed, would have seen the Bills continue descending to the bottom of the NFL barrel. “The New England Patriots got very benevolent or very cocky or very stupid,” he wrote. Buffalo News columnist Bucky Gleason was also very thankful to the Patriots. “We knew Bledsoe was a wonderful quarterback, but we had no idea he was this great,” Gleason wrote. “Lucky for us… Belichick was arrogant enough to trade him inside the AFC East and rationalize playing against him twice a year.”
“Just like that… [the Patriots] were just another team again” (2002)
The Bledsoe/Brady debate fizzled a bit during the second half of the 2002 season, mostly because Bledsoe played poorly. His passing statistics decreased dramatically. Beginning Week 9, the Bills only won two games during a six-game stretch where Bledsoe threw seven touchdowns and eight interceptions. Teams had seen enough film on the Bills’ offense and started to figure out ways to slow it down. Bledsoe had a hard time making reads, started making poorer decisions, and forced more throws.
Brady played better in the second half of the 2002 season and, at one point, New England won 5 out of 6 games. However, near season’s end, the third-year QB reverted back to the poor form he showed during New England’s winless October. His low point was when he threw for less than 150 yards and only one touchdown in back-to-back December games, both crucial losses, which practically destroyed the Patriots’ playoff chances.
By season’s end, despite a few rough December performances, Brady was starting to show that the Patriots’ decision to keep him around in 2002 was the right one. Brady’s biggest selling point was that the Patriots dominated Buffalo twice during the season. Collectively, during the two games, the Patriots outscored the Bills 65–24. Bledsoe played poorly in both. In the games, the Bills’ offense only scored a combined four times in 20 possessions and turned the ball over six times. Four were Bledsoe interceptions during the second game. Meanwhile, Brady threw for a combined five touchdowns and zero interceptions in the two contests.
New England finished the 2002 season with a 9–7 record, while the Bills closed at 8–8. Both teams missed the playoffs. Despite the poor second half, Buffalo saw a five-win improvement from 2001. Bledsoe set team single-season records in passing (4,359) and completions (375). Most around the league believed that the franchise was on a positive path. As for the Patriots, going from a Super Bowl victory to missing the playoffs altogether triggered some more negative commentary. Jackie MacMullan was blunt. “Just like that… [the Patriots] were just another team again,” she wrote in the Globe a few days after the season ended. Miami Herald writer Tim Casey was on the same page. “Turns out, the Patriots’ unlikely [2001 season] journey seems more and more like an aberration,” he wrote.
Despite the disappointing final result, Brady still had a solid season statistically, throwing for 28 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions.
“Bill Belichick is pond scum again. Arrogant, megalomaniacal, duplicitous pond scum.” (2003)
The 2003 season began inauspiciously for the Pats. In the opener, New England was throttled by Bledsoe and the Bills 31–0 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo. Brady threw four interceptions and finished with a paltry 20.4 quarterback rating. It was the worst opening day loss in franchise history.
The humiliation at the hands of a Bledsoe-led Bills team was far from the most troubling part of the day. The Patriots were dealing with a bigger distraction that was amplified during and after the game. When Tom Brady stared across the field that Sunday, he saw safety Lawyer Milloy in a Bills uniform. Before 2003, Milloy had played seven seasons with the Patriots, had started 106 consecutive games, and was a key player during their Super Bowl run in the 2001 season.
Six days before that infamous 2003 opener in Buffalo, Milloy was still a member of the Patriots. He was at training camp and played for the Pats in their preseason games. However, he and Belichick were at odds. The Patriots wanted to restructure his contract in a way that would have resulted in a pay cut. Milloy wouldn’t budge. According to reports, the Patriots wanted Milloy to take a pay cut from $4.4 million per year to $3 million. Milloy wanted $3.6 million. A mere $600,000 stood between the two parties.
Milloy soon found out that he didn’t have as much leverage as he would have liked. New England was already on the books for a $5.25 million salary cap hit with Milloy, and he was coming off the least productive season of his career. The Patriots had also recently signed veteran safety Rodney Harrison from San Diego, and he had been impressive during training camp. He hit hard and brought an edginess that Belichick liked.
As the 2003 regular season approached, Belichick and Milloy were at a standstill. It wouldn’t last much longer. On the Tuesday before the Patriots’ opener, Belichick pulled the plug and released Milloy. The decision shocked and angered just about everyone, including the Patriots’ locker room, the fans, and the media. The Boston Herald’s Kevin Mannix made no bones about how he thought Belichick handled the situation. “Bill Belichick is pond scum again,” he wrote. “Arrogant, megalomaniacal, duplicitous pond scum.”
The Milloy fallout was a distraction during the rest of the week. The veteran safety was a team leader and one of New England’s most esteemed players. Right after the team caught wind of the release, Brady confronted Kraft, who had no idea of Belichick’s plans, and asked the owner how he could let Belichick do it.
Milloy signed with the Bills a few days later, and, not long thereafter, he was on the field for the season opener in Buffalo, alongside Drew Bledsoe, on the opposite sideline as the Patriots. During pregame introductions, the Bills announced Milloy last to a raucous Ralph Wilson Stadium ovation. It was a sign of things to come. “[During the warmups and introductions], I’m just saying to myself ‘oh my god, we are in trouble,’” Damien Woody remembered. “We had no chance that day.”
“Bill Belichick bashers, today is your day. Prepare to feast” (2003)
With the Patriots vulnerable, and in a distracted, awkward situation, the Bills destroyed them 31–0. Milloy played well. In the second quarter, he tipped one of Brady’s passes in the end zone, which was then intercepted by Nate Clements. It was one of four interceptions Brady threw. Milloy also sacked Brady on a safety blitz near the end of the first half. “It was weird. Very weird,” Milloy said after the game. “My mother always told me that God doesn’t act ugly. I came out on top.”
It was an amazing result for a franchise like Buffalo that had been down on their luck for the previous few years. “The script couldn’t have been better if the Bills PR department had typed it up and faxed it over to the NFL office,” wrote Eric McHugh in the (Quincy, Massachusetts) Patriot Ledger. Toward the end of the game, Bledsoe and Milloy were in a great mood and seen hugging, chatting, and looking up at the scoreboard. “We were talking about what you probably think we were talking about,” Bledsoe told reporters. “We were both pretty happy with the win.”
The loss was also the perfect storm for the media. “Second-guessers unite,” wrote Michael Felger in the Boston Herald. “Bill Belichick bashers, today is your day. Prepare to feast. The Patriots’ humiliating 31–0 loss to the Buffalo Bills is your piece of raw meat.” And feast they did. “After the way [Milloy] played for the Buffalo Bills Sunday,” wrote Borges in the Boston Globe, “maybe the Patriots couldn’t afford not to find a way to afford him. It’s too late for that now.” On HBO’s Inside the NFL, analyst Cris Collinsworth compared the New England head coach to “a great doctor with a bad bedside manner.” Collinsworth also expressed his bewilderment about the situation: “For [Belichick] to completely misread the pulse of that team and not understand what [Milloy] meant to the locker room, I can’t believe he was that far removed from it.”
Bill Simmons, an unabashed Boston sports fan, who, at the time, was a popular columnist and media personality with ESPN, wrote that Belichick pushing out Milloy was a disaster, and “indefensible.” “They didn’t save that much in cap space,” he added. “It didn’t make sense… Sometimes your team makes a move, you hear the news, and it makes you say ‘Whaaaaaaaaaat?????’ That was the Milloy release.” He continued: “Belichick… screwed up. Big time. Maybe it doesn’t change the fact that he won a Super Bowl, but it makes you wonder about him. Just a little.”
During the week after the Buffalo debacle, a sense of uneasiness seemed to permeate the Patriots’ locker room. Linebacker Tedy Bruschi, one of the Patriots’ longest tenured veterans, could not hold in his continuing disappointment about Milloy’s release. “How do [I put my heart on the line] in a place where guys who’ve established what this team is about just come and go?” he asked Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. Bruschi was not the only one still troubled about the issue. An unnamed player posed these questions to a Boston Herald writer: “What kind of message do you think that sent everyone in here? What does that tell us about what [Belichick] values in a player? What do you think that tells us about what they want in the future?” The team’s future, according to Providence Journal writer Tom Curran, was heading toward dangerous waters. “For the New England Patriots,” he warned, “the next four months might… be as pleasant as an embolism.”
Curran also considered the possibility that the relationship between Belichick and his players “may be irreparable.” “You ask yourself,” Curran wrote, “‘Is this when it starts to go bad?’” Longtime ESPN commentator Tom Jackson had a similar line of thinking. The following Sunday after the Bills’ blowout, the Hall of Fame offensive tackle said on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown pregame show that the “emotional devastation” the Patriots players suffered from the Milloy release could cost them their season. Jackson continued, “I want to say this very clearly… They hate their coach.”
If Jackson was right, it didn’t affect the New England players on that day. The Patriots destroyed the Eagles 31–10.
The Patriots players tried to brush off Jackson’s comments. “It’s just one outside opinion,” said Richard Seymour. Rodney Harrison was a tad less circumspect. “I respect Tom Jackson, but that is one of the stupidest things I ever heard,” he said. “He has no idea what we think about Belichick.” Wide receiver David Patten was incredulous. “Who is Tom Jackson?” Patten asked a few days later. “Does he sit in at our meetings? Is he in our locker room?”
That loss in Buffalo was the last sign of any Patriots decline for a very long time. New England proceeded to win 14 out of their last 15 regular-season games in 2003, including 12 in a row to close out the regular season. A little over a month later, they captured their second championship title by beating the Carolina Panthers 32–29 in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
New England followed up its 2003 title with another one, the franchise’s third, in 2004 as they beat the Eagles 24–21 in Super Bowl XXXIX. The next day, the headline on the front page of the Boston Globe simply read “DYNASTY.”
Harrison, who took over at strong safety after Lawyer Milloy’s release, turned out to be one of the most important players on the 2003 and 2004 championship teams. In both seasons, he led the team in tackles in the regular season and the playoffs. The locker room respected him so much that four months into the 2003 season he was chosen by his teammates as one of the team’s captains. In the 2003 Playoffs, he forced three turnovers, including two big ones in the AFC Championship game against the Colts. In the 2004 Playoffs he forced two more, including an interception he returned for 87 yards for a touchdown during the AFC Championship game at Pittsburgh. Harrison went on to play four more seasons with New England, retiring in 2008. He is now considered to be one of the Patriots’ most crucial free-agent signings of the Belichick era.
Meanwhile, Drew Bledsoe and the Bills never had any causes to celebrate, as his time with the franchise ended in a thud. Buffalo wasn’t able to continue their momentum after the triumph over the Patriots in the 2003 opener, and finished the season 6–10. In 2004, the Bills went 9–7, but missed the postseason after losing a must-win contest in Pittsburgh on the final week of the regular season. Bledsoe played poorly in the game, which was mostly against the Steelers backups as they had already clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. After the 2004 season, Bledsoe was released by the Bills after he refused head coach Mike Mularkey’s request that Bledsoe relinquish his starting quarterback role in 2005 to become the backup for up-and-comer J. P. Losman.
“Mularkey and his assistants,” wrote Leo Roth in the (Rochester, New York) Democrat and Chronicle, “came to the same conclusion most fans and media did with the naked eye: Bledsoe’s time has passed.”
In his three seasons in Buffalo, Bledsoe started all 48 games, finishing with a 23–25 record, and no playoff appearances. His passer rating declined in each of his second and third seasons. Bledsoe finished his career in Dallas, playing for his first head coach, Bill Parcells. In 2005, he signed a three-year, $23 million deal to be the Cowboys’ primary starter. He started all 16 games for Dallas in the 2005 season, leading them to a 9–7 record but came just short of the playoffs. In 2006, he was so erratic and inconsistent that he was benched for young quarterback with tremendous potential: Tony Romo. Romo shined, and took ownership of the job for 10 years. Bledsoe hung up his cleats and retired in April 2007.
