What If?: Altering Sports History One Piece at a Time

By Sean Penney

Have you ever wondered how things could have been? We all play the "What If" game. As sports fans, we find the history of our favorite teams littered with moments like these. Ripple effects of these moments reach far and wide. Altering the past could have drastic effects on sports history, and as fans, we sometimes can't help but imagine what might have been.

What If? takes a hypothetical glance at some of our favorite players and teams to examine how things could have turned out differently if one particular aspect of their careers had been altered for better or for worse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493185450

Book preview

What if Drew Bledsoe

didn’t get injured in 2001?

Drew Bledsoe had been the Patriots franchise quarterback since being the first overall draft pick in 1993. He made four Pro-Bowls and led the team to a Super Bowl in 1996, which they lost to the Green Bay Packers. In 2001, the Patriots were not considered an elite team, but they were expected to contend for the Division crown and a playoff spot. Those expectations seemingly went down the drain in Week 2 of the season, when Bledsoe was badly injured by a hard hit from Jets linebacker Mo Lewis which tore a blood vessel in his chest in the 4th quarter of a 10-3 loss.

Fans all around New England were crushed by news of the injury which was expected to keep Bledsoe out for several weeks. Stuck in an 0-2 hole to start the season, they were now forced to turn their playoff hopes over to an unknown backup who was drafted in the 6th round. That player was Tom Brady.

We know how that turned out. Brady managed to rally the team around him, leading them to victories in 11 of their remaining 14 games, including wins in their final 6 regular season games. New England finished with an 11-5 regular season record to win the AFC East Division title. Brady made his first Pro-Bowl that season while continuing that roll into the postseason, where their improbable run resulted in a huge upset victory over the heavily favored Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

Since then Brady has gone on to win two more Super Bowl rings, two Super Bowl MVPs, and two regular season MVPs. He has set league records, including his 50 TD season in 2007 (broken by Peyton Manning in 2013), and he has the most career postseason wins of any QB in history (18, and could still add more).

He has led arguably the best offense the league has ever seen during an undefeated 16-0 regular season that nearly resulted in another Super Bowl victory. He’s not only among the best QB’s in the league now, but he’s mentioned in the debate for best QBs of all time. He’s a surefire Hall of Famer and the best thing that ever happened to this once miserable franchise.

Not to knock Drew, who was great at times during his years in New England, but would he ever have accomplished any of that? Can you picture him winning an MVP award or any of those Super Bowls? Bledsoe was a former top overall pick and four time Pro-Bowler who had recently signed a new 10 year, $103 million deal, which at the time was the richest contract in the league. The Patriots were committed to Bledsoe for the long term. That is, until Brady changed their minds. When a younger, far cheaper quarterback leads the team to a surprise Super Bowl victory, what choice did the franchise have but to change course and stick with the kid?

Brady had fought hard to work his way up from sliding to the 199th pick of the 2000 draft (how many teams are kicking themselves for passing him over so many times?). That draft day snub motivated him to succeed, and helped him earn the backup QB spot that put him in position to sub for the injured Bledsoe. It’s clear that confidence was never a problem for young Brady. The first time he introduced himself to Robert Kraft, he told the Patriots owner, I’m the best decision this organization has ever made. Can you imagine? This skinny beanpole of a kid, as Kraft would later recall, with a pizza box tucked under one arm as he strolled down the steps of the old Foxboro stadium, going up to the team’s owner just to share his personal prediction regarding his value to the future of this franchise. But, you know what? He was right! Not even Kraft could have known at the time that he was looking into the eyes of a future Hall of Fame quarterback.

For what it’s worth, Bledsoe handled the transition from franchise QB to backup with dignity and class. He became a friend and a mentor to Brady, which proved instrumental in the development of Brady’s career. It couldn’t have been easy not knowing if he’d ever get his starting job back. There are plenty of players who wouldn’t have handled it nearly as well. Had Bledsoe created an internal power struggle, would the coaching staff have flip-flopped on the decision to stick with Brady? Probably not, considering head coach Bill Belichick would never have stood for such selfish behavior and always does what he believes is best for the team. Still, had Bledsoe been pushing the issue behind the scenes, it would have risked fracturing the locker room and poisoning the chemistry the team was building with Brady. The Patriots would not have been as successful if Brady did not have the full support of Bledsoe all the way.

Brady’s career took off with the Super Bowl victory that year, clinching the starting job for him going forward. In an ironic twist, it took some help from Bledsoe to get to that Super Bowl. In the AFC Championship game, New England led 7-3 over the Pittsburgh Steelers when Brady connected on a 28-yard pass to Troy Brown to move the ball into Steelers territory. But Brady was knocked out of the game with a knee injury on that play. In comes Drew Bledsoe, who doesn’t miss a beat as he finishes the drive, capping it off with an 11-yard TD pass to David Patten. The Patriots would go on to win the game 24-17. Brady would be deemed healthy enough to start in the Super Bowl, but he might not have even had the chance had Bledsoe not saved the day with his impressive performance against the Steelers.

Of course that wasn’t the only time fate intervened during the Patriots’ miraculous run. There is another What if scenario tucked neatly inside this story. Yes, that pun was intended, if you can see where I’m going with this. The infamous Tuck Rule Game came during a snowy New England night in the 2001 AFC Divisional game against the Oakland Raiders. Trailing 13-10 late in the fourth quarter, the Patriots had driven just outside of field goal range when Brady was hit by Charles Woodson. The ball came loose and was recovered by Oakland, which seemingly would have sealed the victory for the Raiders. Not so fast, as New England challenged the ruling on the field. After video review, referee Walt Coleman declared the play to be an incomplete pass, not a fumble. As he announced the call, Coleman stated that the ball was coming forward at the time it was knocked out of Brady’s hand, which resulted in the incomplete call. Except the problem was, Brady’s hand wasn’t moving forward, it was moving backward. The overturned call in a key situation of course led to much controversy and an irate Raiders team, but it was later clarified that the call was correct due to a little known section of the rule book called the Tuck Rule.

NFL Rule 3, Section 22, Article 2, Note 2. When [an offensive] player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body. Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble.

So based on how this rule is written, the call was actually correct; it was just the explanation that needed work. After retaining possession, New England would finish the drive with Adam Vinatieri booming a 45-yard field goal through the wind and snow to tie the game with 27 seconds remaining in regulation. As the game headed into overtime, the Patriots won the coin toss and took the opening drive deep into Raiders territory, where Automatic Adam sealed the win with a 23-yard field goal. (This was before the overtime rule changes, which now allow both teams to have at least one possession in overtime unless a team scores a touchdown on the opening drive. Under the current rules, after Vinatieri’s field goal, the Raiders would have gotten one possession to try to tie the game or win it with a touchdown). So instead of recovering a fumble that would likely have allowed them to run out the clock in the fourth quarter to preserve their lead, a stunned Oakland team saw the decision overturned and went on to lose the game.

You can’t blame the Raiders for being upset with the controversial call. Even as a diehard Patriots fan, I have to admit that it was a pretty dumb rule. Apparently the league agreed, as the Tuck Rule was abolished in March, 2013, by a 29-1 vote. The Patriots, to no surprise, were one of two teams that abstained from voting. You can probably guess which way Oakland voted. Members of that Raiders squad probably still feel that they were cheated in that game, but by the letter of the law, the referee got the call right. But what if the referee had interpreted the rule differently? What if he had used common sense to conclude that there was no way Brady was in the process of throwing the ball when he got hit? What if he determined that Brady had completed the action of tucking the ball into his body prior to losing the ball, which would have resulted in a fumble? These are judgment calls that can be difficult to determine, even with the benefit of replay. Based on what the rules were at the time, the correct call was for an incomplete pass, so the Patriots deserved to keep possession on the play. We just know how dangerously close they were to coughing up their chance to