Looking back, hit changed their destiny
FOXBOROUGH -- It was Sept. 23, 2001, the first NFL Sunday after the towers fell in lower Manhattan. At old Foxboro Stadium, the Patriots were playing the New York Jets and there was a pregame tribute honoring the New York firefighting brothers of Patriots lineman Joe Andruzzi.
Late in the fourth quarter, New England's franchise quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, scrambled to his right on a third-down play, starting at his own 19-yard line. He'd staggered through a dismal afternoon and the Patriots were trailing, 10-3, with less than five minutes to play when he lumbered out of the pocket. Bledsoe gained an impressive 8 yards and was near the sideline close to the Patriot bench when he was almost broken in half by Jets linebacker Mo Lewis.
Who could have possibly imagined what would happen next? And next? And next?
One event affects all events that follow. Scientists call it sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. You might know it better as the Butterfly Effect. Remember George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life" and Marty McFly in "Back to the Future"? They got to see what would have happened if something had gone down differently earlier in time.
A chance to see what the world would be like without you.
Today the Patriots play the Jets in the first round of the NFL playoffs, and the Patriots have three Super Bowl trophies on display in their state-of-the art stadium. Tom Brady, the man who replaced Bledsoe on that fateful September day, owns a 10-1 playoff record and two Super Bowl MVP automobiles. Bledsoe, meanwhile, is a backup quarterback with the Dallas Cowboys and Mo Lewis is living in Georgia, helping his wife raise their two sons. He was cut by the Jets in March 2004.
It's hard to remember what things were like in our football universe in September of 2001. Bill Belichick, now a grid genius ranked on a par with men named Lombardi and Halas, was 41-57 as an NFL head coach. The Patriots, historically a joke of a franchise, were 0-2 in Super Bowls and had lost 19 of 26 games. They also played in the worst stadium in the league and owner Bob Kraft was viewed as a meddling bumbler who'd run off Bill Parcells, violated the citizens of Hartford, and overpaid for Belichick.
Everything changed. In one moment. On one play.
"It was a long-yardage situation," Lewis said Friday via telephone when reached at home. "I was mirroring the quarterback and [cornerback] Ray Mickens said, 'I've got it covered. Go get Drew.'
"He had rolled out and I thought he was going for the sideline. It appeared he was going to step out, but then I saw that he wasn't. I got on my horse and started to go a little faster. I went up high on him. I heard a loud 'pop.'
"It was a pretty good lick. I didn't think that much of it, but then I saw Drew on the ground and I could hear sounds coming out of his mouth like he was asleep."
In the next day's Globe, Brady said, "I've played a lot of football. And if I got hit that hard, I would be in the hospital for a month."
Vinny Testaverde, now Brady's backup, was the Jets quarterback in 2001. He remembered, "It was a pretty loud hit. We all took notice to it and then, obviously, Drew went out of the game a play or two later. I remember Tom coming in, not knowing who he was, and saying, 'This kid can throw it.' I remember getting to the edge of the sideline, a little nervous."
There was reason for Vinny and the Jets to be nervous. Bledsoe (who went to the hospital for several days with a sheared blood vessel in his chest) was on the field for three plays after the vicious hit, but Brady came in to finish the game and completed five of 10 passes for 46 yards in a 10-3 loss. Before the Bledsoe injury, he had thrown only three NFL passes.
"Not to be funny, but I didn't notice much about Tom Brady that day," said Lewis. "We just hadn't seen any film on him, so we didn't know anything. But for him to stay in the pocket and do what he did, that's pretty good."
Of course, we'll never know what would have happened had Lewis not KO'd Bledsoe at the end of that game. We've since learned that Belichick was growing increasingly frustrated with Bledsoe, but would he have had the fortitude to replace a Pro Bowl QB with a sixth-round draft pick who had virtually zero NFL experience? Bledsoe was a grid god in this town, and Kraft had used Drew to promote the new stadium project. Bledsoe had led the Patriots to one Super Bowl and he had a multimillion-dollar contract.
Remember that Belichick set himself on fire in Cleveland -- his first NFL head job -- when he replaced the wildly popular Bernie Kosar with Testaverde (there he is again). Would Coach Bill (5-13 in New England at that hour) have dared bench a healthy Bledsoe for the third week of the 2001 season? Doubtful. It probably would have happened eventually, but it's unlikely Belichick would have made any switch in time to save the 2001 (first Super Bowl championship) season.
"I've thought about that," said Lewis, a three-time Pro Bowler who played 13 years with the Jets. "I mean, if Drew hadn't gotten hurt, they probably wouldn't have made the change and wouldn't have won that season. Then maybe they would have drafted a quarterback or gotten somebody else and Brady might have been one of those guys who bounces around.
"Man, it's like one of those destiny things that Drew did get hit."
So there. The man who changed history calls it destiny.
Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them because you weren't there to save Harry.
This is what Clarence the angel said to George Bailey after George had the chance to see what the world would have been like without him. Here in New England, in January 2007, we can imagine no world without Tom Brady and three Super Bowl championships.
Would Belichick be an offensive coordinator with the Dolphins, abused by friend Nick Saban and hoping for a third shot after two failures as an NFL head coach? Would Tedy Bruschi be retired, ringless, and working as a television commentator after his medical scare -- with no reason to come back and play? Would Adam Vinatieri be working for the Arizona Cardinals, waiting for a meaningful kick and a big contract with a new team? Would Peyton Manning be gearing up for another Super Bowl MVP? Would Brady be a career backup, playing behind Tony Romo in Dallas? Would Fred Smerlas be scalping tickets in Buffalo? Would Charlie Weis be coaching Notre Dame High in Fitchburg?
Doesn't matter. One event affects all events that follow. We know what really happened. And if you are a Patriots fan, truly, it's a wonderful life.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com. 
