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Drew memories

Quarterback Drew Bledsoe announced his retirement on Wednesday night after 14 seasons, the first nine of which were spent in New England.

Bledsoe’s close friend and former teammate, quarterback Scott Zolak, takes us for a spin down memory lane of some of Bledsoe’s top Patriots moments:

Nov. 13, 1994 -- 26-20 overtime win over the Vikings at Foxboro Stadium
“You knew this guy had a boatload of talent, and I think the moment it hit home was against Minnesota. We were getting our tails kicked in at the half and we’re drawing things up at halftime to see what might work. I said ‘What the heck, the guy is the best in the 2-minute mode, put him in the shotgun and go 2-minute the whole game.’ [Offensive coordinator Ray] Perkins said ‘why not?’ He threw 70 passes for 421 yards. That was his coming out, his moment.”

Playing through pain, specifically with a pin in his finger in 1998
“I don’t think he gets enough credit for how tough he was. He would pick himself up off the ground and his chin would be split, and his head was dinged a lot. I’m sure he got more concussions than were known about. I gained a ton of respect for him the way he played with that index finger. It was a night game against the Dolphins [Nov. 23, 1998] and he threw the TD [to Shawn Jefferson] at the end that won it. And he continued to play with a half-inch pin sticking out of the index finger of his throwing hand. Anyone that has played football knows that’s the last one to come off the football. I saw him in the weeks after that taking shots so he could play and it took 4-5 people on the medical staff to hold him down, so the doctors could insert the needle into the upper joint of the index finger. It was excruciating, you’re hearing him scream. But he went out and played. Tell me who would do that?”

The 2001 AFC Championship win in Pittsburgh, in which he subbed in for Tom Brady
“It was after his injury and the success that Tom [Brady] had. He stepped in and threw the TD pass in Pittsburgh, helping the team get to New Orleans. I think he looked at that as his last great Patriots moment.”

On his arrival in town as the first overall pick in 1993 and what that meant for the franchise
“We had a three-hour discussion today on our radio show [on Providence’s WSKO] and the first thing we said was that we didn’t want to make this a debate about Brady vs. Bledsoe, because there seems to be some hatred for Drew because of what Tom did. Just speaking on Drew, the franchise built the team around him. People might forget that it was Drew that Bob [Kraft] put under his arm when he announced the team was staying in New England, put the hard hat on him when Gillette Stadium was being built, brought him to business meetings and had him meeting with bank people. He was a big piece of that pie. ... I remember the whole discussion and it was the whole Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf thing, but with Drew and Rick Mirer at the time. You wonder where the franchise would be if it took Mirer. When Drew came in, he was a big, tall, lanky kid. I didn’t know how good he’d be until I first played catch with him.”