Bledsoe’s at Head of the Class

His coach had lied to him. His resume had abandoned him. His body had betrayed him.

It was the end of the worst week of his worst year, and surely Drew Bledsoe was going to blow.

Walking off the Foxboro Stadium field after a New England victory over the New Orleans Saints in late November, the demoted quarterback passed a horde of fans.

One of them, a 7-year-old boy named Alex Greenberg, strained his little body over the concrete wall for a handshake.

Bledsoe inexplicably stopped. Would this be it? Would this pesky kid give the Pro Bowler the final push? Would there be a scene?

The boy stretched out his hand.

Bledsoe refused to slap it.

He stuck a football in it instead.

Later, that ball sitting proudly on his bedroom dresser, the boy penned a thank-you letter complete with a portrayal of his favorite quarterback in stick figures.

“Bledsoe,” the boy wrote, “you rule.”

Bledsoe, you do indeed.

When Bill Belichick announces his starting quarterback today for Sunday’s Super Bowl against the St. Louis Rams, I don’t want him to pick the guy who is 13-3 as a starter.

I want him to pick the backup.

I don’t want him to pick the guy who threw 18 touchdown passes.

I want him to pick the guy who threw three.

I don’t want him to pick that new fashion named Tom Brady.

I want him to pick that old shoe named Bledsoe.

“Me, too,” said Bledsoe with a grin. “Of course I want to start. Are you kidding me?”

But he won’t. No way. Belichick would sooner smile.

The starter will be Brady, sore ankle and all. It will be the coach’s favorite player, not the coach’s biggest threat.

And you know something? It won’t matter.

Because Bledsoe is already one of the MVPs of this Super Bowl.

Twelve months after the nation’s biggest sports event was plagued with trash talk and thuggery, Bledsoe has given it a renewed sense of dignity.

To a silly week filled with empty growls, Bledsoe has brought back grace.

During Super Bowl media day last year, reporters cringed at the lack of remorse from Ray Lewis, a rising star who had sped from the scene of a murder.

This year, they swooned at a fallen star who has run from nothing.

“You face choices all the time,” Bledsoe said. “You have to decide whether to do the right thing, or the wrong thing.”

Two months ago, in an occurrence as rare as a touchdown not followed by a spike, Bledsoe chose honor.

You know the story. It is still one worth sharing.

Two games into this, his ninth season, Bledsoe was speared by the New York Jets’ Mo Lewis and suffered a sheared artery near his heart.

He lost more than half of his body’s blood. Without the proper transfusion equipment, he might have died.

His recovery required two months. During that time, backup Tom Brady took an 0-2 team and won five of eight games.

Also during that time, Belichick told Bledsoe that when he was sound, he would have a chance to win his job back.

On the Monday before the Patriots’ Nov. 25 game against the New Orleans Saints, Bledsoe was officially sound.

Just in time for Belichick to announce that Brady would be the starter for the rest of the season.

“That move could have torn the team apart,” recalled receiver David Patten on Tuesday. “Are you kidding me? Something like that, we could be sitting home out of the playoffs, and they could still be talking about it.”

But only if Bledsoe talked about it first.

Only if Bledsoe, like many other modern athletes, griped and complained and undermined the team that had seemingly turned its back on him.

Sure, with a $100-million contract, you would think it would be easy for him to shut up. But it’s never easy for any professional athlete to throw away an ego that has helped him succeed.

A demoted quarterback crying? It has happened before. In the dance of starters and backups, it happens every week..

Did you know the last San Francisco memories of Joe Montana involved his petty sideline undermining of new starter Steve Young?

Because Bledsoe will surely be traded this spring, it could have been the same thing here.

But the quarterback talked to his wife, and father, and friends. Then he made the most difficult call of his career.

“I decided to step back, because it was the right thing for the team,” he said. “It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t my first inclination. I’m not good at this. But I felt I had to think of the team.”

His first day in front of the media after the demotion, he said he was looking forward to winning “my job back.”

Then he said no more.

For the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs, as Brady took advantage of Belichick’s safe offense and led the Patriots to seven consecutive victories, Bledsoe said nothing.

Reporters tried to corner him. Television folks tried to catch him. All of Boston strained to hear him.

Still, nothing.

“He stayed so classy, it was unbelievable,” said third-string quarterback Damon Huard. “Nine years as a starter, and yet he didn’t show any bitterness.”

Bledsoe’s locker is next to Brady’s. When the media horde showed up at the youngster’s feet after games, crowding Bledsoe as he tried to dress, the quarterback quietly disappeared.

“I didn’t like the decision, I didn’t agree with it, but I couldn’t be selfish,” Bledsoe said. “At some point, I felt I had to subjugate myself to the team.”

Bledsoe acknowledged Tuesday that his relationship with Brady has changed. But Brady said the former starter has been as helpful as ever.

“I know he wants to play and he knows I want to play,” Brady said. “The fact of the matter is we both have to be ready to play.”

You know what usually happens when an athlete is unselfish. You know where this is going, right?

“Like they say,” Patten said. “Those who humble themselves shall be exalted.”

And so it came to pass last week in Pittsburgh, late in the second quarter of the AFC championship game, Brady sprained his ankle.

For the first time in four months, Belichick looked at Bledsoe with something other than a scowl.

For the umpteenth time during that span, Bledsoe simply shrugged.

“I grabbed the ball, asked for the play, and ran on to the field,” he said. “That’s what I do. That’s who I am.”

His first play was a 15-yard completion. His third play was a 10-yard completion.

His fourth play was an 11-yard touchdown pass to Patten that eventually gave the Patriots a 14-3 lead and insurmountable momentum.

He ended the afternoon, and perhaps his season, by leading the team to a 24-17 upset victory.

After which he grabbed the same kind of football he once handed to a 7-year-old kid, dropped to his knees, and wept.

“To finally get an opportunity to come back on the field, then to come out on top, it was a very emotional thing,” Bledsoe said.

As a reward, today he will probably be sent back to the sidelines.

A benchwarmer. A scrub. A star.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.