Apr 22, 2002 6 min read

FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – The New England Patriots traded Drew Bledsoe to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday after a nine-year career in which he rewrote the record books but watched from the sideline while his former backup led the franchise to its first Super Bowl championship. The Patriots will get Buffalo’s first-round pick in 2003.

New England had been trying to trade Bledsoe since Tom Brady, a former fourth-stringer who inherited the starting job when Bledsoe was injured, led the team to an improbable 20-17 victory over the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl on Feb. 3.

The 30-year-old three-time Pro Bowl selection leaves as the franchise’s top quarterback in completions, attempts and yards for a game, season and career. But he also showed his worth by keeping quiet last season even though he was obviously irritated that he wasn’t given a chance to fight for his job after recovering from a life-threatening injury.

“Drew Bledsoe is a special player,” Patriots owner Bob Kraft said. “I have great respect for all he has done for this franchise. … He gave our fans some of the greatest memories in the franchise’s history and there will always be a special place reserved for him in the hearts of Patriots fans.

“For many reasons, and at many levels, this was a difficult trade to make.”

Bills president Tom Donahoe spent the past month negotiating a deal for Bledsoe, who suddenly and significantly improves the Bills’ expectations after a 3-13 season, their worst since 1985. Bledsoe immediately solidifies a position that had been unsettled since Hall of Famer Jim Kelly retired following the 1996 season.

The Bills’ previous two starters – Doug Flutie and Rob Johnson – spent three seasons in a bitter feud over who deserved the No. 1 job, eventually proving neither could hold it. Alex Van Pelt signed a five-year deal in January after a solid, half-season performance filling in for Johnson when he was injured.

“As a player, I’m disappointed for selfish reasons. But as a team player I’m excited by him,” said Van Pelt, who was bumped to backup. “You add a Drew Bledsoe to your team, it’s huge. … He’s already done a ton in this league.”

Even before the deal was announced, the Bills opened their box office to accommodate fans who heard the trade was imminent. Buffalo, which failed to sell out four of its eight home games last season, drew 504,709 fans last year, the lowest since 1987.

“Just the hint of Drew Bledsoe would get anybody down here,” said Patrick Cimicato, after purchasing a pair of season tickets at the stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y. “As expensive as it is for a game here, Drew Bledsoe is the main reason I came down here. … I was jumping around in the car.”

The first overall pick in the 1993 draft, Bledsoe was the cornerstone of the Patriots’ efforts to rebuild from a 2-14 record and a decade of irrelevance after their loss in the 1986 Super Bowl. In the 2001 media guide, in which Brady shares a page with a fullback who was cut in training camp, Bledsoe’s career is chronicled in the most minute detail.

It tells how he was the youngest quarterback in NFL history to play in the Pro Bowl and reach the 10,000 yard plateau; how he had seven consecutive 3,000 yard seasons – two of them for more than 4,000 yards; how he missed just six of his first 128 games in his first eight years; and how he led the Patriots to the Super Bowl in 1997.

Just last summer, the Patriots signed Bledsoe to a contract that, if all the options had been picked up, would have paid him an NFL record $103 million over 10 years; at the time, there was no doubt that the strong-armed passer who had turned the franchise around would finish his career in New England.

But in Week 2, New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis knocked Bledsoe out with a crushing hit that put him in the hospital with a sheared blood vessel in his chest. Eight weeks later, after Bledsoe was ready to return, coach Bill Belichick decided to stay with Brady rather than tamper with the chemistry that had enabled the team to rebound from 0-2 to 5-5.

In a tense locker room session with reporters, Bledsoe said he was anxious for the chance to compete again for “my job.” But he held back any criticism of Brady or Belichick, who had promised that Bledsoe would get that chance when he was healthy but apparently changed his mind when he decided that a mid-season competition would keep the team from preparing for the week’s opponent.

The job was Brady’s, and the Patriots never looked back.

They won their last six games of the regular season, and then a snowbound playoff game against Oakland after Brady’s late drop was ruled an incompletion because, according to NFL rules, he hadn’t fully “tucked” the ball in after faking a pass. The next week, in the AFC championship against Pittsburgh, Brady injured his left ankle late in the first half and Bledsoe came off the bench to lead the Patriots to the victory.

The question for Super Bowl week became, “Brady or Bledsoe?” But once Belichick determined that Brady was healthy, the job was his.

As he did all season, Bledsoe took the decision with grace, continuing to support Brady as a friend and mentor; when Brady took a nap on the locker room floor before the game, Bledsoe was right beside him. The two also attended a World Series game together in the fall.

“He sets the example for me, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Drew. He’s a huge reason why we are where we are right now,” Brady said after he was named Super Bowl MVP for leading New England to the Rams’ 30 in the final minutes to set up Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal. “He said, ‘Go win the game. Just drop back and sling it.’ That was nice, coming from him, because Drew is as cool as they come.”

And now, they both get a chance to play without having to worry about the other.

“I look forward to my future,” Bledsoe said on the Superdome field after the game. “I still want to play, and I feel like I can play this game at a very high level.”

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AP Sports Writer John Wawrow contributed to this story from Orchard Park, N.Y.