Brady or Bledsoe? Belichick promises answer Wednesday

Posted 10:19AM on Tuesday 29th January 2002 ( 23 years ago )

NEW ORLEANS - Tom Brady or Drew Bledsoe? New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick promises he'll answer the Super Bowl's biggest question by announcing after practice Wednesday who will be the starting quarterback. "I'm really not trying to keep anything from anybody," he said Monday, shortly after arriving in New Orleans. "But I'm not going to say anything if I'm not 100 percent." "You can ask it 50 different ways, and I'll answer it Wednesday, that's the best I can do," he said. But this question won't go away easily, not after Bledsoe replaced the injured Brady late in the first half of the AFC championship win over Pittsburgh. In fact, the first seven questions for Belichick on Monday were all variations on the same theme. He smiled and shrugged, knowing what a huge deal this is leading up to Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams. But the answers were all the same. "I want to help you guys out with this, but I'm just not in a position to do it right now," he said. When Brady got off the plane, he showed no signs of his sore left ankle. In a season filled with adversity and surprises, Bledsoe played on Sunday for the first time in 126 days and guided the Patriots to a 24-17 victory. "The hardest thing for me has been not playing," said Bledsoe, who ran 4 yards and completed three passes on his first four plays, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to David Patten. "To be kneeling on the ball at the end of the game, and going to the Super Bowl, it's just a little overwhelming," he said. Brady was jumping on the sidelines to cheer Bledsoe and his teammates. "I'll be feeling good, ready to roll" in the Super Bowl, Brady said. The Patriots, meanwhile, had been AFC champions for just an hour, and Lawyer Milloy already knew that legions of doubters weren't convinced that they belong in the Super Bowl. He knew whomever they played next would be big favorites. "I hate to look at the odds next week," the Patriots' strong safety said. "We can't worry about the things that happen on the outside. All we have to do is worry about what we do and hopefully, we'll have a party at the end of the year and nobody else will be invited." New England was a 9-point underdog on Sunday when it won in Pittsburgh to reach the Super Bowl for the second time in six years. And, when St. Louis beat the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC title about three hours later, the Patriots were made 16-point underdogs against the Rams by the Las Vegas oddsmakers. So what if the Patriots have won eight in a row and 10 of 11? Does it matter that they put up a good fight in their last loss - a 24-17 defeat to the Rams on Nov. 18? St. Louis has Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, dangerous receivers and outstanding defense. And the Super Bowl will be played on artificial turf and in a dome, just as the Rams had at home all season. Few expected New England to rally from a 5-11 record last season and an 0-2 start this season to reach the Super Bowl - especially when Bledsoe was seriously injured in the second game and No. 1 receiver Terry Glenn was suspended for most of the season. What was expected was that, even after beating the team with the AFC's best regular-season record, the Patriots would be big underdogs for another week. "I don't care what people say," said Pro Bowler Troy Brown, who returned a punt for a touchdown and scooped up a blocked field goal that led to another score against Pittsburgh. "They can broadcast, talk about what we don't have, call us Cinderella, and lucky and whatever else they want to call us. I don't care what they say. All I care about is us in the locker room." "If we listened to what everybody else said, we might as well just not even show up every week," he said. "But we've been fighting all year." The Patriots know all their accomplishments won't mean much to them if they lose the Super Bowl in New Orleans again for the third time in three tries. "If you go down there and don't win that game, it's more devastating than not going at all," said Bledsoe, who was the quarterback in the 35-21 loss to Green Bay after the 1996 season. "So we've got to go down there and win that game."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/1/199528