Those who have followed Cold, Hard Football Facts since its happy little inception back in September 2004 are not having déjà vu. This is, in fact, our second annual birthday wish for one of the most important players in modern football history.
***
Fans in New England should pop a bottle of their best bubbly or homebrew today. After all, it’s the 36th birthday of one of the most influential figures in
modern NFL history: former New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, the kingmaker and Camerlengo of modern pro football. Consider this his Cold, Hard Football Facts birthday card.
Never heard of the Camerlengo? The Cold, Hard Football Facts exist only to place knowledge where ignorance once ruled, so we culled this definition from
Wikipedia:
"Chief among the present responsibilities of the Camerlengo is the formal determination of the death of the reigning Pope; the traditional procedure for this was to strike gently the Pope's head three times with a silver hammer and to call his name. After the Pope is declared to be dead, the Camerlengo removes the Ring of the Fisherman from his finger and cuts it with shears in the presence of the Cardinals, and also destroys the face of the Pope's seal with the silver hammer. These acts symbolize the end of the late Pope's authority." The Camerlengo also oversees the conclave that elects a new Pope.
Lewis didn’t have a silver hammer, but he did use his polyethylene shoulder pads to end the reign of a weak leader and usher in the era of a strong one, even hastening the subjugation of his own people, Jets fans, in the process. Never in modern sports history have the fortunes of one team and so many individuals changed so drastically on a single play.
Lewis, of course, effectively ended the Patriots career of quarterback Drew Bledsoe with a heart-crushing hit in Week Two of the 2001 season. Bledsoe suffered internal injuries, including a sheared blood vessel that could have killed him. He reportedly lost a quarter of his blood.
It hurts even to watch the play today: the 6-foot, 5-inch Bledsoe standing fully erect as he lumbers awkwardly like a gunshot-wounded moose up the right sideline, never even attempting to drop a shoulder and make, as they say, a “football move.” The Camerlengo met him with a crushing hit to the torso.
But gray smoke instantly rose from the New England turf. Bledsoe, of course, was replaced by an unheralded second-year quarterback named Tom Brady. The Patriots ascendancy began at that very moment: New England has lost just 17 of the 77 games it has played in the four years since that day. It’s a moment that’s celebrated in New England and mourned in places like Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and, yes, in northern New Jersey and New York.
The Camerlengo’s profound impact on the NFL is highlighted under a microscope of Cold, Hard Football Facts at the end of the story. In the meantime, here’s a profile of arguably the NFL’s most important player of the past five years.
* The 6-3, 258-pound Camerlengo was taken out of Georgia in the third round of the 1991 draft.
* He played 13 seasons in the NFL, every single one of them as a New York Jets linebacker, before being cut in March 2004. (Even an NFL kingmaker must answer to a higher authority.)
* The Camerlengo, long a fan favorite in New York, made an “honorary” signing in this past offseason so that he could retire as a Jet.
* The Camerlengo played in 200 games. He recorded 14 interceptions, 52.5 sacks, and 1,370 tackles – second-most in team history.
* He recorded 74 pass deflections, forced 19 fumbles, recovered 13, and returned four passes for touchdowns, also second-best in Jets history.
* The Jets plan to honor the Camerlengo’s service to the organization before a game this season. (Our spy trolls tell us you will see him on the sidelines in Atlanta this week on Monday Night Football.)
* The Camerlengo was named to three Pro Bowls and, in 2003, to the Jets all-time team.
The Cold, Hard Football Facts suggest the Camerlengo be named to the Patriots all-time team, too, as no one has done more to change the fortunes of a franchise that had been one of the most inept in NFL history. In fact, New England’s football fortunes did an abrupt about-face courtesy of the Camerlengo, the likes of which have never before been seen in modern pro sports. Consider these Cold, Hard Football Facts both Before and After the Camerlengo.
BC: The Patriots were 8-9 in the playoffs over a 41-year period.
AC: The Patriots are 9-0 in the playoffs over a four-year period.
BC: New England was sputtering through a 5-13 run.
AC: New England went on a 14-3 streak that culminated in a climactic, walk-off, game-winning scoring drive in the Super Bowl and one of the biggest upsets in NFL history.
BC: Bill Belichick had a 42-58 career coaching record.
AC: Bill Belichick has a 60-17 record.
BC: The Patriots in the Belichick era scored just 16.4 points per game.
AC: The Patriots scored 44 points in their next game AC (their most in five years) and went on to average 25.1 points the rest of the season.
BC: New England was noted for a team-record 14 straight losses during its 1-15 1990 campaign.
AC: New England is noted for an NFL record 21 straight victories in 2003-04.
BC: The Patriots lost 15 games in a single season (1990), a record for futility they share with six other teams.
AC: The Patriots won 34 games over two season (2003 and 2004, including playoffs), a record unmatched in NFL history.
BC: New England's franchise fortunes were symbolized by a phantom roughing-the-passer call in the playoffs.
AC: New England's franchise fortunes are symbolized by the fortuitous “tuck rule” in the playoffs.
BC: New England was a bumbling franchise that could never be counted on to win the big game.
AC: New England has mastered the art and science of pulling out tough victories in big games.
BC: The Patriots never won more than 11 regular-season games in 41 years.
AC: The Patriots have recorded back-to-back 14-win seasons.
BC: New England was a middling NFL nobody.
AC: New England is the dominant team in pro football.
BC: The Patriots appeared in three championship games in their first 41 seasons.
AC: The Patriots have appeared in three championship games in the last four seasons.
BC: The Patriots were 0-2 in Super Bowls (and 0-3 in title games), losing by scores of 51-10 (AFL), 46-10 and 35-21.
AC: The Patriots are 3-0 in Super Bowls, winning dramatically in the last minute by scores of 20-17 and 32-29, and in slightly less dramatic fashion, 24-21.
So while you’re watching New York at Atlanta on Monday or waiting for New England's next game after its bye week, consider for a moment the most influential player in Jets history, and wish a happy birthday to the man who ushered in the era of the New England football dynasty: Mo Lewis, Camerlengo and kingmaker of the modern NFL.
