Any Controversy Soon Takes a Hike

NEW ORLEANS —  It has been the most polite quarterback controversy in the history of football.

“You start, Tom.” “No, you start, Drew.” “No, really, Tom, you should start.” “But, Drew, you should be the guy.”

Finally, Wednesday night, New England Patriot Coach Bill Belichick selected Tom Brady over Drew Bledsoe as the starter for Sunday’s Super Bowl XXXVI against St. Louis.

One suspects Belichick was toying with us all in this super-friendly Super Bowl week. Brady had replaced Bledsoe in the second game this season after Bledsoe was injured. Brady got hurt in the AFC championship game against Pittsburgh and Bledsoe led the Patriots to the upset of the Steelers.

First, Belichick said he would announce his starter Wednesday morning. Then it would be Wednesday after practice. But after practice, Belichick announced his announcement wouldn’t come until later, after he watched video of practice. While he did, we had video of breathless interviewers asking Brady and Bledsoe how practice went. The answer was fine.

But thank goodness Belichick, the Bill Parcells disciple, turns out to have a devilish sense of humor. What’s the point of having a Super Bowl if a coach can’t have a little fun? If you’re going to make all the players sit at tables in hotel ballrooms for an hour every morning to answer questions, might as well give them the same question to answer over and over and over.

Won’t it be hard, the Rams are asked, to prepare for a game when you don’t know who the quarterback is?

“Well,” said Ram defensive back Aeneas Williams, “it’s not that big of deal. Brady and Bledsoe are pretty similar. It’s not like one is a scrambler and one stays in the pocket. They’re both big, strong guys with rifle arms. Doesn’t really matter to us who plays. We’re kind of laughing about all this. Brady, Bledsoe, doesn’t matter. Plus, I think Belichick is going to pick Brady. You take the guy who has been doing it all year.”

That’s the thing.

The only controversy would have been if Belichick had chosen Bledsoe.

Belichick is not ruled by sentiment. The choice of Sunday’s starter is not about history or a body of work. The job of starting quarterback for a single Super Bowl game is not a lifetime achievement award.

Brady has started for three months. He’s got the timing with the receivers. He’s got the confidence and rhythm. He had a sprained ankle, not a broken leg. He’s not walking with a limp. He’s not talking with any hesitation. “I’m fine, I’m healthy, I’m ready,” Brady has said this week. Over and over.

“I’m ready, I want to play, I can do the job,” Bledsoe has said this week. Over and over.

So we all have something to chew on. The Irish blokes from the band U2, the scheduled halftime entertainment, gave a news conference Wednesday. They said they would not announce whether Brady or Bledsoe would start Sunday. They claimed a vow of silence over who looked better in practice Wednesday. It was a great joke. The whole “controversy” has been a great joke.

This is the first time that a Super Bowl team arrived at practice five days before the big game without a starting quarterback having been announced.

There have been unusual quarterback situations before:

* In 1969, Johnny Unitas came off the Baltimore bench to replace Earl Morrall after Morrall threw three interceptions against the New York Jets. Unitas had missed most of the season with a sore elbow. Unitas led Baltimore to its only touchdown, but the Joe Namath Jets won the game.

* In 1971, Morrall ended up relieving an injured Unitas and the Colts beat Dallas on that memorable Jim O’Brien field goal.

* Jim Plunkett became Oakland’s starting quarterback in the sixth game of the season and led the Raiders into the Super Bowl, then to its 27-10 win over Philadelphia in 1981. Plunkett became the starter only after Dan Pastorini broke his leg and because the Raiders thought rookie Marc Wilson wasn’t ready.

* Doug Williams had started only two regular-season games for the Washington Redskins before the 1988 Super Bowl and had been involved in a quarterback controversy with Jay Schroeder that was touched by racial questions. Joe Gibbs finally made Williams the starter as the playoffs began and Williams ended up being the first African American quarterback to win a Super Bowl and be named Super Bowl most valuable player.

What has happened with Brady and Bledsoe is nothing like this.

What happened with Brady is what happened to Kurt Warner three years ago.

An unknown backup, an undiscovered gem, is thrust into the front of the line and he does his job better than anyone expects and he becomes a star and goes to the Super Bowl.

The controversy for the Patriots will come after the Super Bowl, when it is time to figure out who will be the starting quarterback next season. And whether the Patriots can afford to keep both Brady and Bledsoe for very long. And if Bledsoe is going to be the backup, won’t he finally get cranky and not be so darn nice about the whole thing?

For now, though, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

“Tom Brady demonstrated in practice today that he is fit to play,” Belichick said to a pool reporter, the only person allowed to chronicle this momentous announcement. “He will be our starting quarterback Sunday.”

OK, but what do we talk about for the rest of the week?

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Diane Pucin can be reached at [email protected].