06/23/2002

Well, well, well, it seems Drew Bledsoe
is fitting in nicely as the new big toe in Buffalo. According to an Associated Press story, he's been seen halting minicamp practices when they get sloppy, calling his teammates together to let them know what he expects and sending them back to their positions to work as The Franchise said.

Better late than never.

Buried deeply beneath everything that happened with the Patriots and Bledsoe since Sept. 23, when he was injured, is a quote from Lawyer Milloy
just before Tom Brady
made his first start against the Indianapolis Colts.

"He's the kind of vocal leader they need over there right now," Milloy said when asked what Brady -- he of the three career passes -- would bring to the table for the Patriots' offense.

That, from the team's defensive leader and -- in many ways -- the soul of the franchise, was a staggering indictment of Bledsoe.

Something must have lit the wick on Milloy for him to make a comment like that.

Maybe it was all those Sundays from about 1998 until the start of last year, when Bledsoe would stand up at a postgame press conference and say, "I take the blame. This one's on me. I won't talk about anyone else's mistakes until I play perfectly."

Stop. Rewind. Just push play after the next loss.

Once or twice, maybe even more than that, Bledsoe's stoic approach would have been laudable. Instead, it became laughable. It was a willingness to jump on the grenade before it could be lobbed at him. It was the easy way out.

The Patriots needed Drew Bledsoe to be the kind of vocal leader who halted practices when Tony Simmons
was out there running mystery routes, the kind of guy who flashed fire during games instead of walking to the sidelines, shoulders slumped in resignation.

There were times when he jumped ugly. He gave Vincent Brisby
an earful back in 1997 during a game in Jacksonville when the Pats were without Curtis Martin
. And what happened that day? The Patriots stunned the Jaguars, breaking a lengthy home-stadium winning streak by the Jags. And he cuffed Greg Robinson-Randall
when he missed a block at Chicago in 2000, nearly allowing the Bears defensive end to pick off a screen pass.

But too often when it was time for Drew Bledsoe to sing, to name names, to demand more, he dummied up.

You may think it's laudable that he never was the finger-pointing blame-layer that Dan Marino
seemed to be on so many Sundays late in his career, and you are right. Up to a point. The point where it's no longer acceptable to go along to get along is when you are the anointed leader of an offense and you cannot or will not accept that mantle fully. Who was the vocal and spiritual leader of the Patriots' offense during Bledsoe's tenure? Bruce Armstrong
. Left tackle. Can anyone come up with another team where the left tackle was The Man?

It didn't make Larry Bird
any less of a leader and icon when he famously said his teammates were playing like sissies (Larry Joe never got swept up in the whole politically correct maelstrom) after an NBA Finals whipping from the Lakers. The Celtics won the title that year.

On the surface, Bledsoe's tight-lipped approach was brilliant. Who's going to quibble with stand-up Drew? But he always was a fairly shrewd one at gauging public opinion. He knew there was more upside to falling on his sword publicly even if he could have made a bigger difference by pointing that sword at the offending parties.

But Bledsoe wasn't one for confrontation. He waited for Bill Parcells
to leave town before the snide remarks about "Bill being all about Bill" started to fly. For Bledsoe, wistfully bemoaning the business side of football when FOD's like Todd Rucci
and Max Lane
were released -- which were really thinly veiled swipes at head coach Bill Belichick
-- was about as close as he came to taking someone to task. And in those cases, he was proven terribly wrong.

On the other hand, maybe it wasn't all bad that Bledsoe was so adept at keeping his lips buttoned. Plenty of Patriots think Bledsoe could have altered the season had he rocked the boat after losing his job to Brady. Thankfully for them, Bledsoe had had plenty of practice at not speaking up.