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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