Bledsoe Retires

Quarterback Drew Bledsoe has announced his retirement after 14 seasons. He goes out with some very impressive statistics, but having never really established himself solidly as an elite quarterback. He had the misfortune of playing much of his career on Patriot teams that just were not all that good. For a couple of years, they had Curtis Martin as their running back, and won some divisional titles and went to a Super Bowl. Outside of that, the team never really came together with Bledsoe at the helm. I think it says something about his ability that he was able to put together those statistics without much around him.

He has been so completely overshadowed by his successor in New England that it's easy to forget that just before the 2001 season, New England signed Drew to a contract that would have made him a Patriot for life. He was the star of a franchise sorely lacking. At the time, no one could have imagined Bledsoe not leading the team. Of course, just 2 games into that season, Bledsoe got hurt and the Patriots went off into the stratosphere with Tom Brady. It's also easy to forget that Bledsoe actually won that 2001 AFC title game, with Brady hurt much of the game (so they've both won 2 title games) and that there was a serious quarterback controversy in the week leading up to Super Bowl 36, with some advocating the now unimaginable view that Brady should be benched and Drew should start the game.

Basically, Drew's career was always stuck in the shadow of others. In his heyday, he was in the shadow of greats like Favre, a declining Marino, Aikman, Young, Elway, etc. In his latter days, he was in the shadow of Brady. Because of this, and because his teams were rarely all that good, I don't think he's ever really gotten the respect that he should have. He won't make the Hall of Fame, but there is reason to think he perhaps should.