The public had a general idea about the two Vice Presidential candidates, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance of “Hillbilly Elegy” fame and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, but past their basic bios, it wasn’t clear there was much else notable about either of the two men. The talking heads and enlightened punditry believed the debate between Vance and Walz might be an interesting if inconsequential undercard in the national presidential title fight between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
But instead of a soon-to-be forgotten forensics match between two relative unknowns, what transpired on the stage in New York might have been the Democrats’ Drew Bledsoe moment.
Remember Drew Bledsoe?
He was a standout quarterback at Washington State University in the early 1990s who the New England Patriots selected with their first overall pick in the 1993 NFL draft. Bledsoe quarterbacked a sub-par New England franchise back to competitiveness and respectability. With Bledsoe under center, the Patriots were on the way up, and fans hoped their star from Walla Walla, Washington would lead them to future championships.
That’s why Patriots fans experienced a collective heart-stopping moment on September 23, 2001 when their franchise quarterback took a vicious hit along the sideline in the closing minutes of a game versus the New York Jets. Bledsoe lay crumpled on the ground unable to rise, and for those few moments of time, the hopes and dreams of Patriots fans all around the country lay there with him.
And while no sports fan of an opposing team will admit it, knocking the other team’s starter out of the game improves your own team’s chances. Jets fans, seeing Bledsoe was out, probably thought the game was theirs and more importantly, that the Patriots’ season was finished after only the second game of the season. New England would have to go to their back-up who was likely raw and inexperienced, as rookie NFL backup quarterbacks often are.
The network cameras did what cameras do in these situations, panning the sidelines looking for shots of the back-up strapping on his helmet, anxiously taking snaps under center, and loosening his arm.
Do you remember who the cameras found that day warming-up to go into the game?
A young man, drafted in the sixth round from the University of Michigan (the 199th player selected overall) who only NFL personnel people and the most die-hard draftniks knew. Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Which brings us back to J.D. Vance.
Although Trump is definitely still in the political game, Democrats made no secret over the course of the Republican primary that they preferred to face him in the general election. Trump was, among Democratic Party cognoscenti, the most beatable of all the Republican frontrunners. Returning to the football analogy, like Bledsoe had with the Patriots, Trump had reinvigorated and revitalized the Republican party, but Democrats knew his tendencies and weaknesses, and believed they had the right game plan to defeat him.
What they did not expect at the only Vice-Presidential debate was for the world to get a close look at Trump’s “back-up,” Vance. What they saw must have resembled what Jets fans saw when a thin and slightly awkward Brady jogged from the sidelines to the Patriot’s huddle – an inexperienced second-stringer probably enroute to a rookie flameout.
Instead, the Jets created an opportunity, and from that opportunity the Patriots (and later Tampa Bay Buccaneers) found a quarterback who took his teams to nine Super Bowls and seven championship titles. Titles aside, the most telling of all Brady’s competitive statistics is this: from the time he became a starter until his career’s end twenty-three years later, Brady never played a snap where his team was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
Brady’s defining quality as a quarterback was a preternatural cool in the face of pressure, and as anyone who has played sports or been exposed to high-pressure situations will tell you, this quality is contagious. Leaders who are able to keep their heads when all around them are losing theirs are rare indeed. Although Vance has a long way to go before he can claim seven political “Super Bowl” wins to his name, the tools and raw ability were on display when the lights were hottest and the nation’s eyes were upon him.
It is fair to assume Vance’s calm demeanor, lucidity, and ability to clearly articulate his positions in front of the TV camera’s unblinking eye will not disappear in his staff meetings, policy debates, or confrontations with our nation’s adversaries.
Vance, who like Brady was not the first choice, was on the sidelines waiting for his opportunity. Democrats, like Jets fans watching Bledsoe being assisted to the bench, probably thought Vance was perhaps a serviceable back-up, but nothing more. Vance showed last week that he’s got what it takes to be the starter, and Republicans have now seen enough to know what his performance portends for the future of their party and the nation.
For Democrats, like Jets fans on that September day in 2001, the Vice-Presidential debate last week was their Drew Bledsoe moment.