Mo Lewis blames Drew Bledsoe for hit that started Patriots dynasty

Patriots

“It’s a big game-changing, history-changing play. I’ve never gone back to watch the play.”

Former Jets linebacker Mo Lewis likely never has to buy a beer in New England ever again. 

It was Lewis who indirectly orchestrated the start of the Patriots’ two-decade dynasty on Sept. 23, 2001 — when he crushed then-Patriots starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe as he scrambled along the sideline and attempted to get out of bounds. 

Slow to get up from the bone-crunching hit, Bledsoe was ultimately transported to the hospital due to the critical injuries he suffered. Bledsoe’s lung had collapsed from the hit, while he also suffered from several internal bleeding after he sheared a blood vessel in his chest.

“If he’d have been on his way home, he would have either died in the car accident when he lost consciousness, or he would’ve died from the blood loss,” Bledsoe’s father, Mac, said in an “E:60” episode in February 2020.

The hit from Lewis both changed the trajectory of Bledsoe’s career and the fortunes of the Patriots’ franchise. 

With Bledsoe sidelined, the Patriots turned to unheralded backup Tom Brady to finish out the rest of the game. Brady did not lose the starting job the rest of the season, with New England going 11-3 with Brady that year en route to an underdog triumph in Super Bowl XXXVI against the Rams. 

Bledsoe — who did step in at QB for the Patriots during the AFC Championship Game against the Steelers — was ultimately traded the following offseason after New England’s Super Bowl title, while Brady went on to win another five Super Bowls as the Patriots’ starting QB. 

But Lewis — breaking his silence in a soon-to-be-released book — said that the hit that changed the course of NFL history falls on Bledsoe and his decision to run with the ball. 

“[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 — as noted by ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “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.”

While Lewis is perhaps best known for his hit on Bledsoe, he was an accomplished player in his own right — as he earned three Pro Bowl nods and two All-Pro selections over the span of his 13-year NFL career with the Jets. 

“It’s really irrelevant to me,” Lewis said of the impact of his hit on Bledsoe “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.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.