-
Rich Cimini
Nearly a quarter-century ago, former New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis delivered a hit on Drew Bledsoe that changed the course of NFL history.
Tired of being held responsible by Jets fans for triggering the Tom Brady era and the New England Patriots’ dynasty, Lewis has unleashed another hit.
Lewis, breaking a long media silence, contends in a soon-to-be-released book that it’s Bledsoe — not him — who deserves the blame for what happened on Sept. 23, 2001. Bledsoe was drilled so hard that it sheared a blood vessel in his chest — he nearly died in the ambulance — creating an opportunity for the unproven Brady.
“[Bledsoe] just signed a $100 million deal to be what type of quarterback? A passing quarterback, correct?” Lewis says in “Brady vs. Belichick,” written by longtime NFL reporter Gary Myers. “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.”
Bledsoe, never known for his mobility, was trying to run for a first down late in a game eventually won by the Jets 10-3. Lewis chased him down and blew him up along the sideline — a clean but crushing hit that stunned players because of its ferocity. It ended Bledsoe’s run as the Patriots’ quarterback.
Lewis, 55, has avoided the media and team alumni events since retiring after the 2003 season, with several former teammates saying it’s because he feels slighted that fans and media remember him for the Bledsoe hit and not his entire body of work. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and a first-team All-Pro in 1998.
Lewis insisted he’s not bothered by any of it.
“It’s really irrelevant to me,” says Lewis, alluding to the fallout from his hit. “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 says he wasn’t aware of Bledsoe’s condition, and that he didn’t check because he was focused on his job.
“I’m not trying to be an a–hole,” he says. “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.”
As part of the NFL’s celebration of its 100th season in 2019, it conducted a poll to determine the top 100 game changers in league history. Lewis was No. 82.
“He was the guy that actually started Tom Brady’s career,” Herm Edwards, the Jets coach in that 2001 game, says in the book.
Former Patriots assistant coach Pepper Johnson says he was “mad at Drew” because he warned him “not to go one-on-one with this dude.” Johnson and Lewis were teammates on the Jets, and Johnson describes him as “a Scud missile.”
“I painted the scenario for him to run out of bounds,” Johnson says.