MICHAEL HOLLEY

Is Bledsoe a finished product?

2/1/2002

EW ORLEANS - They tuned in late to the ongoing Brady-Bledsoe episode, so it's hard to blame them for using the wrong word to describe it. The people here think the Patriots are dealing with a quarterback ''controversy,'' but this story has never been about that.

For a true quarterback controversy, you need a head coach who waffles. You need a guy who loves his starter for three days of the week, suddenly shifts to the backup for the next three days, and then spends Sunday afternoons dreaming about the next great quarterback to come out of the draft.

The Patriots don't have a controversy. This team belongs to Tom Brady, and that began to come into focus as early as last August. In an organizational meeting at the end of training camp, Bill Belichick said Brady was the team's best quarterback.

If you pick up the trail there and follow it all the way here, roughly 48 hours away from Super Bowl XXXVI, not much has changed on the football side. The only difference now is that Brady-Bledsoe has turned into an international human-interest story. Three policemen were arguing about it in the lobby of a downtown hotel yesterday, and U2's The Edge was talking about it Wednesday afternoon.

It may be a compelling story to discuss, but the results are already in. Belichick waited until Wednesday evening to say Brady and his tender left ankle will start against the Rams, but he probably knew what he would do as early as Sunday night.

You get the feeling that a coach has intense conversations with the mirror during a controversy. He has restless nights and sends mixed messages to both of his quarterbacks. When you have a coach putting the ball in the hands of a first-year starter before the Super Bowl and saying, ''Win it for us,'' the message is clear: Unless there is a blowout or an injury, Bledsoe has most likely played his last game for the Patriots.

That's not as controversial as it is shocking.

Every good starting quarterback knows his team will eventually bring someone in to replace him. He starts to look for the replacement signs when he reaches his mid-30s. That's part of the reason Bledsoe, 29, is so stunned by all of this. He didn't think this day would come so fast.

This time last year, Brady was a skinny kid who didn't have the necessary footwork to play regularly. His coaches liked the way he worked, but they didn't think he had the physique to take the punishment of an NFL starter. So they signed Damon Huard as a backup.

When Bledsoe got hurt, things had changed more than he realized. Brady, who had passed Huard in training camp, began to play well and the culture of the organization began to change. Under Bobby Grier and Pete Carroll, some players felt that there was a star-treatment mentality. There was a feeling that a few players, Bledsoe among them, had the ear of the Krafts and could therefore get whatever they wanted.

The players didn't blame Bledsoe for that, but they let it be known that they resented the previous double standard. They were assured that the most worthy players would be on the field, regardless of their connections and/or contract status.

Bledsoe may have returned from his injury and asked for his job back, but it was no longer his job. If he hadn't been hurt Sept. 23 against the Jets and had continued to play the way he did in that game, I think he still would have lost the starting job to Brady.

Yesterday, the two quarterbacks emphasized how much they are ready to play. A solemn Bledsoe said his time in the AFC Championship game was akin to a hungry man receiving a few morsels of food. Inevitably, he finds himself wanting more of the same. A confident Brady talked about his previous big game, when he was a backup at Michigan.

''That was when Michigan was ranked No. 2 and Penn State was 1,'' Brady reminded everyone. ''We killed them, for those who didn't see that game.''

The young quarterback also told a story about his old neighborhood. There was a fast kid he kept challenging to footraces, and the fast kid kept beating him. One day, Brady finally - and improbably - won the race.

''It was like the tortoise and the hare,'' he said. ''I was the tortoise.''

Was the tortoise. Past tense. He is in the lead now, and Bledsoe is his classy backup, watching a championship run. We all have visions of how we want to leave, and Bledsoe didn't want it to be like this. Not at 29. Not in front of the international press. Not watching the Super Bowl as the kid he mentored plays in it.

Bledsoe is a smart man, capable of reading more than complex defenses. He can read the signs. He knows that if he is going to return to this game, he will have to do it outside of New England.

So no, this is not a quarterback controversy. Not at all. A quarterback's concession is more like it.

Michael Holley is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is holley@globe.com.