Enjoying the title

NEW ORLEANS -- Tom Brady might as well rev up that luxury SUV he won as the Super Bowl's MVP and drive Drew Bledsoe out of town in style.

Brady's latest success in football's biggest game left little doubt that Bledsoe, the best quarterback in New England Patriots history, will be playing elsewhere next season.

Plenty of teams need quarterbacks, and the Patriots could use the salary cap space. Team owner Robert Kraft said he'd like to keep both QBs but would consider a blockbuster trade.

Bledsoe is scheduled to make $5 million next season, the second of a 10-year, $103 million contract. He probably won't be on the team's unprotected list to be announced Tuesday for the Houston Texans draft, because the Patriots would get nothing in return.

"I look forward to my future," Bledsoe said after Sunday night's 20-17 upset of the St. Louis Rams. "I still want to play, and I feel like I can play this game at a very high level."

Many years remaining

Bledsoe, 29 and a three-time Pro Bowler, said he likes living in New England but says he still has many productive years left.

He was seriously injured in the second game of the season, suddenly changing the career of a player who had missed just six of 128 games. Then he watched while Brady took the team, which finished at the bottom of the AFC East last season, to the top of the NFL.

But Bledsoe added one accomplishment to a career in which he has broken almost all of the team's passing records.

He came in after Brady sprained his left ankle late in the first half of the AFC championship game, threw a touchdown pass and led the Patriots to a 24-17 win in Pittsburgh.

"I'm fortunate to be on a team with guys like Drew, or else we wouldn't have won the Super Bowl," Brady said Monday after a few hours of sleep following a team party.

Moments after the win, Bledsoe and Brady smiled and embraced on the field.

"There was a lot of emotion," said Brady, who has credited Bledsoe for helping him improve. "He was proud of me and I'm proud of him."

Bledsoe ended his season the way he spent it: with an unselfish attitude, even though he knows he could be headed to a team such as Washington or Chicago -- contenders who need a quarterback.

"This whole season has been about playing as a team," he said. "I know my role and I do my part to support my team. I really do understand what my role has been."

Bledsoe's departure wouldn't be the only change coach Bill Belichick will make because of salary cap issues and free agency.

"I'd love to be able to keep the team the way it is, but realistically, I don't think that's totally possible," Belichick said Monday.

Adam Vinatieri, whose 48-yard field goal as time expired won the Super Bowl, is a free agent. So is running back Antowain Smith. Several defensive players joined the team this season on one-year contracts.

Brady is signed through next season, but the Patriots might give him an extension rather than let him become an unrestricted free agent. The sixth-round draft pick from Michigan in 2000 hardly seemed that valuable when he ended last season as the team's No. 4 quarterback.

But he worked hard on his strength, technique and ability to read defenses and began this year as Bledsoe's primary backup. He ended it with nine straight wins.

"There hasn't been a downer yet," Brady said, "except this morning at 6 a.m. when the alarm went off."

Still, his trip Monday to Disney World as the Super Bowl MVP was more than he could have imagined. More public appearances and endorsements should follow for the photogenic 24-year-old with a dimple in his chin and a twinkle in his eye.

"It's new to me," Brady said. "I'm like a kite in the wind, just kind of going with the flow."

One of his stops probably will be the White House. On Monday, President Bush called Kraft and invited the team there at an undetermined date, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

On Monday, Brady recalled going to a game in San Francisco near his home as a child.

"My parents remind me that I cried the whole first half because they wouldn't buy me one of those dumb little '1' fingers that stuck up," Brady said, "but they finally got me to shut up and they bought me one."

Now the Patriots are No. 1 and Brady wants to savor that. He's acknowledged, though, that he has plenty of work to do to improve.

"It's been an incredible ride this year," he said. "I know we always want to talk about getting back next year, but I want to appreciate this one."