The First Time Is Always Memorable - The Game That Made Me A Patriots Fan for Life

Before Brady took them to new heights, a foundation had to have been laid for the current Patriots to stand on

 
With Week 2 in the NFL season upon us, and my 0-1 Patriots playing the Vikings this weekend, I started thinking about how many times these 2 teams have actually played each other (The answer, 11...that's it). One time in particular stands out for me as it was the first full game I ever watched from start to finish. I had to look it up to make sure of the date but there it was: November 13^th, 1994. The day that changed the way I looked at Football FOREVER. It’s been almost 20 years since I literally fell for a team and have been following them passionately ever since.

I was 16 years old just starting to get into the game and the NFL as a whole. I had heard of the New England Patriots only as a reference to how equally bad they were in the NFL to how bad the Maple Leafs were in the NHL which is to say some combination of Horrible and Awful (Horri-awful). I had seen them change their jerseys to this new cool looking “flying Elvis-like” symbol (as Chris Berman from ESPN so eloquently puts it every so often) and I had heard o how they had drafted this hot shot QB named Drew Bledsoe who was going to be their “savior”.

With their 1st Overall selection in 1993, Robert Kraft and Bill Parcells made the first move towards turning the Patriots into a dynasty

Not being very familiar with the team and having only seen them sparingly as the Bill were actually GOOD at that time, I didn’t pay much attention to them but I was in their corner given the similarities between them and the Leafs: Left for dead, decades of losing, playing in an old stadium, hope for a turnaround with a new coach (Bill Parcells had just jumped on board around the same time Pat Burns had joined the Leafs). Things were looking up but I still would not have considered myself a huge fan. Then “IT” happened.

Let me preface this particular game in a way that many non-football fans look at the NFL: It was usually a very boring game. Most NFL plays at that time were hand offs until it was 3^rd down and 5 or more yards, which led to a throwing play. This one game and the style of play that the Patriots started to use from this point onward sold me on the team, the players, the city, fans and the coach.

THE lasting image from that game, Kevin Turner hugging Ben Coates

The game was a mismatch at the time as the Pats were in last place in the AFC East at 3-6 and the Minnesota Vikings were 7-2 and in first place in the entire NFC. Parcells was having all kinds of questions thrown at him as in his 2^nd season with the team, they were a combined 8-17 going into this game. So in other words, he was in big time trouble. Even in this game, the team started off horribly as they were down 20-0 at one point and 20-3 at half. Warren Moon and the Vikings could do no wrong as he had led his offence to 286 yards in that first half while 2^nd year QB Bledsoe had only 89 total yards with his group.

Then the comeback began. The team switched to a no-huddle, pass only offence that changed the way I looked at the game. You have to remember that Bledsoe was the only QB at the time that could possibly throw the ball with more power then Warren Moon (both of them had absolute rockets for arms) so to see the two of them firing the ball down field for the entire second half, was the most exciting football I had ever seen.

Bledsoe was on a different level that day as he set records for attempted passed (70) and completions (45) as he led a furious comeback to force overtime tied at 20 (the defense did the old “Bend, don’t break” thing despite some long drives by the Vikings during that 2^nd half).

The most memorable moment to me of that entire game was the final play. The 70^th pass attempt and 45^th completion of the game by Bledsoe was also the final play of the game as he lobbed a pass into the corner of the endzone and Kevin Turner, who would become Bledsoe’s security blanket out of the backfield over the course of the next 3 years, made a game winning, diving grab into the corner of the endzone of old Foxboro Stadium (where the fans seemed to be RIGHT ON TOP OF THE PLAY) to send their faithful fans into a frenzy. I’m getting goose bumps as I write this.

From that moment on, the Patriots were a different team. It was the first of 7 straight wins by the team and would propel them to make the playoffs for the first time since they lost the 1986 Super Bowl to the Chicago Bears. That inspiring run would help the young fledgling team to finally start to buy in to Parcell’s and his methods and, despite losing to current Coach Belichick’s then Cleveland Brown Team in the Wild Card game, the young players now had a taste of what could be. 2 years later, they would make it all the way to the Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers led by Brett Favre.

In a close game, Favre would beat Bledsoe and the Patriots to win Super Bowl XXXI

The seeds were now their and the foundation was set on what would turn into the top team in the NFL for the last 20 years (6 Super Bowl appearances, 3 SB Wins in 4 years, 9 AFC Championship Game Appearances). Parcells ended up leaving after that loss in the Super Bowl and the team struggled for 2 years before finally bringing in Belicheck to right the ship. One of his first moves in 1999 was drafting a skinny but lanky QB out of Michigan with the 199th Overall pick named Tom Brady. A stroke of luck yes but most of what Tom would learn in his first 2 years as a back up QB was passed along by none other then Drew Bledsoe.

It was because of Bledsoe that the transition to Brady was as smooth as it was

Even when it came time for the Franchise to move him, despite all he had done for the team and the fact he was still in his prime, he handled it with class as he had always carried himself when he was a Patriot. He passed many a thing along to Brady and the team and he made a Patriots fan and a fan of his in me for life.

(referenced by http://www.boston.com/sports/touching_all_the_bases/2014/09/throwback_thursday_when_drew_bledsoe_threw_and_threw_and_thr.html )