September 23, 2001. A Sunday that started with heavy hearts as the NFL returned to the field for the first time after the 9/11 attacks. Most people remember it as the day the Tom Brady era began, but honestly, it was almost the day Drew Bledsoe died. It wasn't just a football play. It was a terrifying medical emergency masquerading as a routine sideline collision.
You’ve seen the highlight. Bledsoe, the $103 million franchise savior of the New England Patriots, scrambles toward the right sideline. He needs a first down. Instead, he meets Mo Lewis, a veteran New York Jets linebacker who didn’t get the memo about being gentle with the league's highest-paid stars. Lewis lowered his shoulder and delivered a hit so violent that Tom Brady, standing just a few yards away on the sideline, later described it as "the loudest hit I could ever remember hearing."
But the crazy part? Bledsoe actually went back into the game for the next series.
The Mo Lewis Hit on Drew Bledsoe: A Freak Medical Event
Most fans think the injury was a concussion or maybe some broken ribs. It was way worse. Mo Lewis hit Bledsoe so hard that he sheared a blood vessel in the quarterback's chest. This caused a condition called a hemothorax. Basically, Bledsoe was internally bleeding, losing about a pint of blood every hour into his chest cavity.
If you ask the doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital who saw him that night, they’ll tell you he was lucky to make it through the ambulance ride. His brother, Adam, was in the back with him. As the ambulance hit the outskirts of Boston, Bledsoe just went "lights out." He passed out from the massive blood loss. When he finally woke up, he had a tube in his chest pumping blood out and another tube putting it back in.
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"I don't think I really knew how serious everything was for a couple days afterward," Bledsoe admitted years later. "If our trainer hadn't intervened... things could have been really different."
Mo Lewis, for his part, has always been pretty blunt about it. To him, it wasn't a "legacy" play; it was just a tackle. He was doing his job. He recently told reporter Gary Myers that the responsibility for the hit lay with the guy carrying the ball. "Had he not got outside the pocket and ran with the ball, would we be talking about this?" Lewis asked. It’s hard to argue with that logic, even if it did inadvertently launch a twenty-year dynasty for the Patriots.
Why the Patriots Stuck with Tom Brady
When Bill Belichick stood at the podium in November 2001 and announced that Tom Brady would remain the starter even though Bledsoe was healthy, the Boston media lost its collective mind. You have to remember the context. Bledsoe wasn't just some guy. He was a Pro Bowler. He had led the team to a Super Bowl in the 90s. He was the face of the franchise.
Belichick’s decision was arguably the guttiest coaching move in NFL history.
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The Quarterback Controversy That Divided New England
- The Pro-Bledsoe Camp: Older media members and fans who felt loyalty to the man who "saved" the franchise in 1993. They saw Brady as a "system QB" who lacked the arm talent of Bledsoe.
- The Brady Believers: A younger crowd who noticed the team just played differently with the sixth-round pick under center. The offense was more efficient. The ball came out faster.
- The Financials: Bledsoe was on a massive contract, while Brady was making roughly $300,000. In a salary cap world, the math favored the kid.
Honestly, the "controversy" only ended because they kept winning. Brady didn't just play well; he orchestrated a 44-13 demolition of Peyton Manning and the Colts in his first start. By the time Bledsoe was cleared to play, the Patriots were in the middle of a playoff push.
The Class of Drew Bledsoe
We talk a lot about the hit and the dynasty, but we don't talk enough about how Bledsoe handled being replaced. Most franchise QBs would have burned the building down. Instead, Bledsoe stayed ready. When Brady went down with an ankle injury in the 2001 AFC Championship game against the Steelers, Bledsoe stepped in and threw a touchdown pass to David Patten that helped send the team to the Super Bowl.
He played the "good soldier" role perfectly, even though it must have been eating him alive to watch a 24-year-old kid take his job.
The Long-Term Fallout for the New York Jets
There is a cruel irony in Mo Lewis being the one to deliver that hit. Lewis was a great player—a three-time Pro Bowler who was the heart of the Jets defense for years. But for Jets fans, his legacy is forever tied to the fact that he "created" the monster that would dominate their division for two decades.
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If Lewis doesn't make that hit, does Brady ever get his shot? Maybe. But maybe not in 2001. Maybe Belichick gets fired after another losing season, and the greatest dynasty in sports history never happens.
Actionable Insights for Football History Buffs
If you want to truly understand the ripple effects of the Mo Lewis and Drew Bledsoe collision, here is what you should look for in the archives:
- Watch the 2001 AFC Championship: It's the only time you see the two quarterbacks truly "hand off" the season. Bledsoe's performance in Pittsburgh is the forgotten chapter of that Super Bowl run.
- Study the 1993 Draft: To understand why people loved Bledsoe so much, you have to see the state of the Patriots before he arrived. He was their "LeBron" moment.
- The "What If" Game: Research the 2001 Week 2 box score. The Patriots lost that game to the Jets 10-3. They were 0-2. The dynasty didn't start with a bang; it started with a messy, low-scoring loss and a near-fatal injury.
The Mo Lewis hit wasn't just a sports highlight. It was a pivot point for the entire league. It changed the rules for how quarterbacks are protected, it changed the trajectory of three different franchises (the Pats, Jets, and Bills), and it reminded everyone that in the NFL, the difference between a career-ending tragedy and a legendary beginning is often just a couple of inches on the sideline.