It was any other hit.
Concussions happen, injuries happen. That's the nature of football.
But when Jets linebacker Mo Lewis drilled Drew Bledsoe along the sideline in 2001, it wasn't just the end of the Bledsoe era in New England — it was the birth of a dynasty that would last two decades.
MORE: Tom Brady says goodbye to the Patriots
It was the fourth quarter of a fairly nondescript Week 2 game, when incumbent quarterback Drew Bledsoe scrambled for a first down and was knocked for a loop by the Jets' linebacker. He was diagnosed with a lung injury that would sideline him for a month.
The Jets would go on to win the game 10-3 — but they would lose the two-decade war that followed.
It wasn't as much about Bledsoe as it was the QB2 on the depth chart. Enter Tom Brady, the Patriots' sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. Brady would finish the game for the injured Bledsoe, going 5-for-10 passing for 46 yards in the loss. What happened next, no one could have predicted.
Brady finished the season as Patriots starter, leading New England to the Playoffs as head coach Bill Belichick hitched his wagon to the second-year QB, even after Bledsoe got healthy. While Bledsoe would see the field again in the AFC championship game, leading a scoring drive that pushed the Patriots to Super Bowl 36. That's where Tom Terrific got his first ring — the first of six with New England. Thanks, Mo Lewis.
Belichick would trade Bledsoe to the Bills for a 2003 first-round pick in April 2002.
"We all knew what the situation was: A football team can have only one starting quarterback," Belichick said in 2001 via ESPN. "In the end, it can only be one guy. ... When you put it all together, this is probably best."
But what if Mo Lewis never took out Bledsoe? The questions are endless.
- Does Tom Brady ever get a shot in New England? Bledsoe signed a 10-year, $103 million contract prior to the 2001 season. ''I've expressed over and over again my desire to play my entire career with the New England Patriots,'' Bledsoe said via the New York Times in 2001. ''It looks like that is a very real possibility.''
- Does Tom Brady become the GOAT? There was never much doubt that — from the moment Brady stepped on a football field, he was the real deal. But does Tom Brady become Tawm Brady away from Foxborough and Bill Belichick?
- How long does Belichick last in New England? There's no denying that Bledsoe signing a big-time deal would have given Belichick a bit longer of a leash, but there was also no secret that Belichick was infatuated with Brady as the No. 2 QB in New England, despite being a late-round pick. Belichick went 5-11 in his first year in New England (after resigning as the HC of the Jets) and started the 2001 season 0-2. Things weren't looking great for ol' Bill there.
- Do the Jets become football's next great dynasty? Well, probably not.
Though, Lewis did have a very productive, fairly long career with the Jets — he was a first-team All-Pro in 1998 — he's mostly remembered as the dude who unleashed Brady onto the league.
Who knows what would have really happened?
What we do know is what actually happened — and now the nightmare (for the NFL) is over, and the dream (for the Patriots) is dead.
