Decisions don’t come much tougher than the one Bill Belichick was forced to make 18 years ago.
After Drew Bledsoe went down with injury in Week 2 of the Patriots’ 2001 season, Tom Brady took over under center and guided New England to a 5-2 record over the next seven weeks. With Bledsoe available to return in Week 10, Belichick needed to pick who he was going to roll with moving forward: the No. 1 overall pick from 1993 who led the Patriots to a Super Bowl four years later or a 24-year-old kid with seven starts under his belt.
As the legendary coach revealed in the series finale of “NFL 100 All-Time Team,” he went into the week with an open mind but eventually opted for Brady against the then-St. Louis Rams. While Brady was underwhelming in that game — a 24-17 Patriots loss — Belichick saw enough to stick with his gut and proceed with TB12.
“Well, Tom was special his rookie year even though he didn’t play,” Belichick said on NFL Network. “His leadership with the other rookies in the class — we had a big rookie class. Tom took them every day after practice and would run them up and down the field in their offensive plays. He was clearly a leader on the field, had a very good training camp in 2001. Kind of the crossroads was in the middle of the 2001 season when we played the Rams. That was the week Drew had come back, so I split the reps between Tom and Drew that week and the Rams beat us in that regular-season game on Sunday night. I didn’t think that was Tom’s best game, but in retrospect, I looked at it and thought it would be hard for anybody to play well only getting half the reps. So the following week against New Orleans, I said, ‘We’re just going with Tom and he’s going to get all the reps and he’s going to play.’ He played very well in that game and I think that’s one of the real trademarks of Tom’s career. There have been a couple games along the way where he hasn’t been his best, but the next game he’s always come back and had an outstanding game. That was a real turning point, I would say, in that season and ultimately the evolution of Tom’s great career.”
It’s safe to say Belichick made the right call.
