Scenes From a Broken Marriage

Take One: QB One enters AFC championship game in second quarter after QB Two goes down with sprained ankle. He whips the New England Patriots downfield and ends the drive with the decisive score and the Pats' only offensive TD in a 24-17 upset of the Steelers. During 15 previous weeks (seven inactive, eight DNPs), QB One has been Terrific Sideline Soldier -- carrying clipboard, giving advice, mentoring QB Two as if they were blood brothers. Okay, Pats head coach, who prefers QB Two to QB One, hasn't seemed to care, characteristically displaying people skills of orangutan. But now this? After clutch score paves way to title game; after team erupts and joyfully mobs QB One; as once-and-present savior stumbles to sideline; coach turns around and walks away.

Take Two: QB Two leads drive-of-the-age. With 1:30 remaining and no timeouts left in Super Bowl XXXVI, he marches Pats downfield in nine plays, setting up field goal that upsets the Rams, 20-17. Okay, Pats head coach had kept both QBs in suspense all week leading up to the game -- forcing them to sit outside his hotel room like schoolkids in the principal's office before summoning them separately to reveal who would start. But now this? As QB Two and QB One embrace in the afterglow of improbable championship, QB Two is thrilled, fulfilled, wildly ecstatic. He's going to Disneyland. QB One is blank, bitter, torn, emotionally vacant. He is, of course, going to Buffalo.

The number of QCs (quarterback controversies) in the NFL is oh, say, precisely half the number of QBs. But they provide twice the fun. Which is why most of Maine and Vermont and all the other hardy folks from the northeastern colonies -- now joined by Tonawanda, Lackawanna and the entire Niagara Frontier -- are continually disappointed that Drew Bledsoe doesn't come out and expose Tom Brady as a cutesy teacher's wimp who was sheltered in a no-risk offense and never got blamed for mistakes. A coward who always took a pass from Dr. Doom (that's Pats coach Bill Belichick) in meetings. And why they're just as up in arms that Brady doesn't come out and call Bledsoe an over-the-hill, burnt-out victim of too many hellacious hits who'd misplaced his concentration, lost his spirit, given up on winning and needed a change of scenery anyway.

But as they prepare to meet for the first time since that bittersweet hug in the Superdome last February -- New England plays at Buffalo on Nov. 3 -- wouldn't it be fabulous stuff if the B&B boys got really brazen and bitchy and sound-chomped the livin' sheen off each other's veneers?

Bledsoe, of course, has been fairly busy with the Bills, a team that last season managed the equivalent of going over nearby Niagara Falls in a barrel full of chicken wings. In 2001, the Bills were 3–13. Through eight weeks this season, the 30-year-old from Walla Walla, Wash., has left Buffalo foes fairly wallowing. Through Week 7 he was the third-rated QB in the NFL, led the league in passing yards, attempts and completions and ranked second in touchdown passes and completion percentage.

He's already thrown for more than 400 yards twice and pulled out victories against the Vikings and Bears with game-winning TD passes. The result is a stunning, early-season turnaround that has the 5–3 Bills in second place in the AFC East. He's positively resurrected a franchise for the second time in his career: Remember the Bill Parcells Pats, for whom Bledsoe became the youngest QB in history to throw for 10,000 yards?

Meanwhile, back in Beantown, Brady, 25, had just been getting conditioned as America's newest It Prince. "We saw that naked bird chest on some magazine cover, and we haven't let him forget it since," says NE center Damien Woody. Then the Patriots started, uh, stinking up the entire Eastern Seaboard. After escaping to a more isolated neighborhood in suburban Quincy and ditching his old Qunnipiac-grad girlfriend to date the likes of Tara Reid ("I wish half the stuff I read about actually happened," a laughing Brady nonverifies), the infant star Pat has turned into a grizzled, put-upon patsy. Nine interceptions for the season leading up to New England's bye in Week 7. Who else to blame for the Patriots' humiliating four-game losing streak? The same charming guy who New England's fourth estate had designated in September as a "clutch performer, teen idol, football hero, clean-cut icon and corporate pitchman" was now being called "The Clueless Kid" whose "honeymoon was over."

	Last season Drew Bledsoe was singing the blues ...

"I went through this at Michigan, so it isn't all new," Brady says, remembering his time in Ann Arbor between Brian Griese and Drew Henson. "It's the other side and it isn't fun. I remember watching Drew [Bledsoe] deal with all the negative stuff in the down times," Brady says. "I often thought, 'Wow, I would've handled that differently.' Now, I know why he had to handle things the way he did."

Brady and Bledsoe actually had a phone conversation earlier in the season, and it was before the Pats' losing streak. "Just small talk," says Bledsoe. "I've got a lot of respect for the guy. He's worked very hard to get where he is. But a lot of guys can do it for a while -- for a season. What defines you is how you cope in the hard times. Montana, Marino, Elway, Kelly. They all went through tough experiences. The ones who ultimately survive and continue to play at a high level are the great ones."

Semi–ouch. But, c'mon, Drew. Brady's ballyhooed work ethic? How hard was it to remain focused at the Pats' Foxboro training facility when his option was a lonely apartment filled with orange crates? Who begs out of a championship game with a sprained ankle? And with the O-line a mess, nobody to run the ball and having to ditch that flat-pass finesse stuff and fling it downfield with the boo birds in full song -- just like you did, Drew -- hasn't Brady's weakness been unveiled? How cool does Patriot Nation think he is now?

Or Tom, what about Drew's legacy? Let's talk about him losing 19 of the last 26 games he started. A pair of last-place finishes in the AFC East. And after a horrid 2001 preseason, that life-threatening sheared blood vessel in his chest after a vicious hit from Jets linebacker Mo Lewis in Week 2 not only cost Bledsoe his job, it also camouflaged some sorry play, didn't it? In that same game, hadn't Mr. 30,000 Passing Yards gone meltdown? A delay penalty near the Jets goal line, a pick in the end zone, an intentional grounding that was so close to the line of scrimmage it was almost called a fumble?

Alas, Brady and Bledsoe continue not to say those things publicly about one another. They are simply two straight-arrow fellas dripping with class and grace. Besides, they did combine efforts and submerge personalities for the good of the team, which in the end brought greater Boston its most cherished championship since the Tea Party. Where are the trash-spewers and their Sharpies when you need one?

"The public has a misconception about these quarterback controversies," says ESPN analyst Sean Salisbury, who was a career backup quarterback for five seasons. "Warren Moon, Wade Wilson, Jim McMahon, Rich Gannon -- they're still some of my closest friends." And that may explain why Bledsoe and Brady have dished the dissing. Above everything, Bledsoe and Brady are friends. They've golfed together. Shared a limo ride down I-95 to New York for a Yankees playoff game. The bachelor Brady has dined with the Bledsoe family in the latter's $10 million mansion in Medfield.

"The Doug Flutie-Rob Johnson thing here was rare," says the Bills' sage fullback, Larry Centers. "Guys usually don't hate each other and not get along. Real pros deal with it. Drew has too much character to hold anything against Tom. He could have torn New England's whole team apart. Instead, he was the one guy who meant the most holding them together. In Buffalo we especially could appreciate that. But every player in the NFL recognized Drew's class in the way he handled that situation."

It wasn't easy. When Bledsoe got healthy, he was ready to play. Expected to play. But Brady was in the middle of that fairy-tale run to New Orleans. Belichick must have forgotten the unwritten rule about a player not losing his job because of an injury. That's why the relationship between B&B (Belichick was "unavailable" to characterize his own relationship with the other two B's) suffered. "The hardest thing I've ever been through," says Bledsoe. "Nine years in the same place, hardly injured much, then to have my job yanked away and made to watch somebody else play."

"Of course I tried to be sensitive to Drew," says Brady. "I kind of took the lead from him, in the way we handled it. If he didn't say anything, I didn't. If he made a statement, I could. He deserved the right to choose. As the starter, it was much easier for me. Drew never had been a backup. Never not played. How could he be comfortable in that role? We'd both hear the same questions -- what about this, that? Then people would ask, don't you hold stuff against each other? We never let it get to the point where I would characterize it as bad. But it was a tough environment."

The Charles became the river of no return for Bledsoe the week he returned to the Pats before their 24-17 loss to the Rams last Nov. 18. At some point he thought Belichick would give him back his starting job. But postgame, Belichick -- whose techie, control-freak persona and terrifying zoned-out stare when things aren't going peachy reflects the best of Hannibal Lecter -- actually implied that Brady's inconsistent play was caused by his sharing practice time with Bledsoe, who had taken "too many" snaps. Too many turned out to be 20. Centers, an objective observer from a distance, laughs: "That injury shouldn't cost you your job rule? There's a bigger rule. It's called winning."

	... but now it seems young Brady is the one who's way off key.

As Brady's Pats won and won, Bledsoe's bags were being packed and repacked. His wife, Maura, and their three sons stopped going to games. Brady became the toast of the Back Bay. But what really bothered Bledsoe was Belichick's insistence that the kid was winning with the same offense the veteran had struggled with for two years of 13–19 ball. In truth, five offensive linemen Bledsoe had been shackled with were no longer on the team. The Pats' O-coordinator, Charlie Weis, had installed a confined scheme that relied mostly on the running of Antowain Smith and was purposely designed to insulate Brady from mistakes. Even Brady acknowledged it: "No QB likes to make his living handing off."

Ultimately, there was one QBs meeting in which the celebrity-sated Brady expressed exasperation at his new-found lack of privacy. "That was it," says a friend of both. "Here was Tom on this great winning streak and he was, like, moaning. Drew just looked over and said, 'You have no idea. Just hope you never start losing again.'"

***

If chickens always come home to roost, Bledsoe couldn't have found a safer place to land than the land of the original chicken wings. He's cut from selfless familial cloth and tough-as-nails competitor stock, with a father who oversees a family foundation on parenting skills and a grandfather who was a Top Gun pilot and four-star Navy admiral.

At his signing day in Buffalo, a high school band played the Washington State (Drew's alma mater) fight song. Three thousand fans showed up at the Bills offices in Orchard Park. Hundreds more lined the street to the doctor's office where Bledsoe had his physical. In one day, the season ticket base grew by another 1,500. "I grew up watching Bills games on TV, the great quarterback duels between Marino and Kelly," says Bledsoe. "Playing here, Bills fans were always the loudest and the best. I never thought the Patriots would trade me within the division. I can't believe I could have wound up anywhere more perfect."

It didn't hurt that in Eric Moulds, rookie Josh Reed and Peerless Price, Bledsoe had some exquisite playmates to receive his downfield rockets. Or that the Bills drafted massive 370-pound OT Mike Williams out of Texas to protect his back, not to mention front. Or that Kevin Gilbride -- one of the founders of the old run 'n shoot -- was in place as offensive coordinator. Or that Buffalo head coach Gregg Williams was an unabashed admirer. "Just to watch Drew on the sideline is electric," says Williams. "You can feel this guy's confidence and charisma. But the one part of his leadership that's overlooked is that he's such a great listener. Drew takes input from everybody and fits it into the game plan."

It was also significant that the huge spread of land (farmhouse and pond included) Bledsoe purchased in rural East Aurora, N.Y., reminded his whole family of out West, both their off-season ranch in Montana and back home in Walla Walla. "Other than there's no snow-capped mountains, I'd swear I was in the same county," says his dad, Mac, who visits often. "Drew loves the look in western New York, the feel, just the way the people are. You ride down the street and wave, and folks actually wave back. And not with their middle finger."

Just hope you never start losing again.

Back in Boston ("You've got to get out of there," Bledsoe recently told a nonfootball friend, "it's the most negative place in the world"), our Other Hero has experienced additional changes. No more Brady sightings at the local Chili's, whose customers used to ignore him rather than contribute standing ovations. But plenty more camouflage caps, sunglasses and tinted car windows. "I was naïve before," Brady says. "Now, I'm a little hardened by all this." He also had to be chagrined that his roommate and best friend on the team, defensive end David Nugent, was unceremoniously cut by Belichick. So much for keeping your Happy Guy happy.

The baby of the San Mateo, Calif., Brady bunch, Tom recently welcomed a new tenant to his condo: his sister, Nancy 26, a Cal-Berkeley grad who has moved cross-country to serve as his "assistant" after working in the biotech industry. Another sister, Julie, 28, is soon to move in as well. "Will they cramp his style?" says Tom Brady Sr. "I wouldn't be a bit surprised. As Tommy says, 'Yeah. Nothing like having a pair of older sisters checking out your every move.' But these down times are good for him. He's always been on this high profile curve. Tommy's growing up and he's always made good decisions."

About Tara Reid? Or Throwing Into Quadruple Coverage?

"Sticking Tara Reid's head in your shirt after throwing nine picks won't cut it in Boston," says a Patriot patriot. "I saw the Golden Boy out at the movies a few weeks ago. You can bet he's lost that routine already. This game coming up? New England will go nuts. Did they get rid of the right guy or the wrong guy? If Bledsoe and Buffalo beat the Pats, Brady will be sending out for his movies at Blockbuster until forever."

This story appears in the November 11 issue of ESPN The Magazine.