Tag: mo lewis

Ex-Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe says famous Mo Lewis hit could have killed him

The hit Jets LB Mo Lewis laid on Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe in 2001 could have had far worse consequences if Bledsoe didn’t go to a hospital.

Mo Lewis and the Jets are forever tied to Tom Brady’s legacy after the former New York linebacker knocked then-Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe out of a 2001 game between the two teams.

The injury gave rise to Brady’s career in New England, but it effectively ended Bledsoe’s time with the Patriots. Things could have been a lot worse for the veteran, though.

Bledsoe recently told The Dan Patrick Show that the hit would have killed him if he didn’t go to the hospital after the game. Bledsoe said that he “wasn’t all there” after the hit and that he “had a pretty serious concussion in addition to the internal stuff.”

“After the game, I tried to go home. Thankfully, the doctors didn’t let me do that,” Bledsoe said. “If they let me go home, I would’ve died. I was bleeding out about a liter an hour internally. By the time they got me to the hospital, I was out, and they took a lot of blood out of my body. Thankfully they were able to recycle my blood and put it back in, so they didn’t have to open my chest up, but it was pretty touch-and-go for a while.”

Everyone knows what happened in the weeks and years following the hit: Brady led the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships during a two-decade stretch of dominance. Bledsoe, meanwhile, played five more years with the Bills and Cowboys.

Lewis’ hit allowed Brady to replace Bledsoe in New England, but the consequences could have been much worse.

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20 years ago on Sept. 23, Mo Lewis hit Drew Bledsoe and Tom Brady became the Patriots’ QB

20 years ago on Sept. 23, Tom Brady stepped in for an injured Drew Bledsoe and NFL history changed

On Sept. 23, 2001, Drew Bledsoe rolled out in the fourth quarter of a New England Patriots game against the New York Jets. He turned up field to run. It would become the play that changed NFL history.

Bledsoe headed toward the sideline and as he got there Jets linebacker Mo Lewis delivered a punishing shot.

The hit eventually drove Bledsoe from the game and sent the former No. 1 overall pick to the hospital. He played a series after the massive hit that gave New England’s big-money quarterback a concussion, a collapsed lung, and internal bleeding. Bledsoe nearly died from the violent collision.

Enter a sixth-round pick in 2000 from Michigan named Tom Brady and the rest became NFL and Super Bowl history.

 

NBC Sports Boston did an oral history on the play and what ensued.

The Patriots went one to lose the game, 10-3. And in the long run, they won, and won and won.