After a 14-year NFL playing career it didn’t take long for former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe to miss the two-a-days during the summer heat. Instead he spent time on his boat on Whitefish Lake in Montana instead of getting knocked around like he did during those 14-years with New England, Buffalo and Dallas.

While his NFL friends were sweating through the grueling twice daily practices, Bledsoe had his wife, Maura, take his picture with his feet in the water drinking a beer. He then proceeded to email them the photo with a message attached.

“As you can see from this first picture I am maintaining my strict workout regimen,” he wrote them. “You can see here I am alternating some 12-ounce curls with some toe swirls. I generally do these until the bottle gets too light to offer enough resistance then I start over with a fresh one.”

Everyday through the first week of camp he followed it up with different photos.

Then when camp came and went, Bledsoe finally felt he left that phase of his professional life and that it was time to move onto the next.

Several years ago a planned winery with three other quarterbacks – Dan Marino, Rick Mirer and Damon Huard – fell through so Bledsoe started his own vineyard and planted the grapes three years ago. His winery will start production in 2010.

Then there’s “11 Roasters” a coffee bean roasting business that is headquartered in Bend, OR. Bledsoe proudly will talk about his coffee blends that come out of the fire engine red roaster.

His business plan, regardless of the venture, is starting out small and being in a manageable situation and then expand. Among his post-football business are real estate and the Drew Bledsoe Foundation as well as the winery/vineyard and the coffee roasting business.

Drew has also been active in the community having raised $600,000 in just four months to put in field turf on the athletic fields, coaching his kids in flag football and youth basketball.

Bledsoe also feels that his great sense of humor will suit him well in his post football career. That humor was reflected in the family holiday card with everyone but him dressed up with him seated obliviously in the center watching TV amongst the smiling family members.

He’s also been approached by teams about a return to the NFL. Last season Arizona, Cincinnati, Carolina and Jacksonville all called. Although the Jacksonville situation intrigud hi, none of the offers contained enough of a lure to pull him away from this second phase of his business life. And the next day he realized he made the right decision.

“I really don’t have any regrets,” Bledsoe said. “Most people leave the game angry, at least for a little while. I had that with the Patriots, but I got over it, moved on.”

Bledsoe at times still misses the game he loves, it’s only natural. But he has new dreams, a new phase of his life and the family is building a new 10,000 square foot house complete with a theatre and a basketball court.

“His career didn’t end the way we thought,” Maura said. “I always wanted it to end in the Super Bowl, ride into the sunset. But this works. He’s happy and busier than he’s ever been.”

As a Patriots fan, he and Steve Grogan are probably the quarterbacks ranked two and three in team history behind Tom Brady, the man who replaced Bledsoe. But if it weren’t for Bledsoe who knows where the franchise would have gone in the mid 90’s. He was an important part of the process of keeping the team here along with the Kraft family. He was the franchise player they badly needed and for that Patriots fans should be ever thankful to him and for his time in Foxboro.