Former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe flew 3,000 miles to honor and play football with veterans over the weekend. Little did he know that during the game, he’d be taken down by Dave Stevens, the first person without legs to play college football and professional baseball.

That’s right. The Super Bowl winning gunslinger from the New England Patriots was sacked by a 52-year-old man who “runs” using his arms.

On first down, Stevens did a few shoulder rolls as he eluded a lineman and got to Bledsoe’s shoelaces, for a dream-come-true moment.

Take a look:

 

 

And from a different angle:

 

 

Bledsoe quarterbacked the Patriots alumni team as they took on the Wounded Warrior Amputee Football Team at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, Mass. in the “Game of Honor,” a charity flag football contest.

But, who is Dave Stevens? Well, he has lived arguably one of the greatest sports stories that you’ve never heard of.

Three feet, two inches tall? Doesn’t matter. He tried out for the Dallas Cowboys and the 1984 Olympic baseball team, he pinch hit for Darryl Strawberry, and he won seven Emmy Awards while working for ESPN.

“I don’t want it too sound offensive, but I feel like I’ve lived a Forrest Gimp life,” Stevens told us in 2016. “If you remember Forrest Gump, he was in all these weird scenarios where he was doing things with famous people. I’ve had those kind of surreal opportunities all my life.”

Stevens was born without legs because his birth mother took Thalidomide, an over-the-counter drug used to treat morning sickness.

He was adopted immediately after he was born and developed a passion for sports early in childhood.

He was a three-sport athlete in high school, stunning onlookers as he became a championship wrestler, a lineman on the football team, and a right fielder on the baseball diamond.

It was jaw-dropping in a time when the state of Arizona was trying to find reasons for him not to play.

Photo c/o Dave Stevens

“I don’t think anybody without legs had tried to play sports anywhere,” Stevens said. “I had to take all kinds of blood tests and screenings. They couldn’t find anything that was physically wrong with me or that could keep me from playing sports, so they finally had to give in.”

Once he got on the field, he unleashed it all. Linemen didn’t know how to block him, so he would dip right in between their legs and get to the quarterback or the running back, often behind the line of scrimmage.

In baseball, he had a low strike zone, which enabled him to set the state record for most walks in a season, and in a career. They’re records that still stand to this day.

“I know coach had a stat that guys who hit after me, hit like .667 or something crazy just because the pitchers were so rattled trying to find my strike zone that after they walked me, it was tough for them to come back and throw strikes,” Stevens said.

He received a scholarship to Augsburgh College in Minnesota, and then continued his athletic career as he was breaking into sports media as a producer, video editor and reporter. Eventually, he landed a job at ESPN  as an assignment desk manager.

During that time, he also tried out for the Olympic baseball team, where he was in the same outfield as Barry Bonds. That was followed by a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds and the Minnesota Twins.

Then came the tryout for the Cowboys.

“I did the tryout and got the certificate saying I wasn’t fast enough to make the team. It was a great experience,” he said.

In 1996, he inked a contract with the Saint Paul Saints, a minor league baseball team. He played there for three weeks, and not only did he pinch hit for Darryl Strawberry, but he inspired the big leaguer, too.

Stevens with the sack on Bledsoe. Photo c/o Dave Stevens

“Darryl said he wouldn’t have made his comeback in the Major Leagues if he had not met me,” Stevens said. “He said he walked out onto the field and was ready to quit, but he saw this guy without legs. All the media was focused on me. He thought, well, if this guy wants to play baseball this bad, then I need to start trying to get back to the majors.”

After his athletic career was over, he became a content editor at ESPN, winning seven Emmy’s and covering 15 Super Bowls and six World Series.

Today, Stevens is a busy father to three boys and a motivational speaker, who delivers quite the message.

“You have to walk a mile on my arms to understand what I’ve gone through and what I’ve had to overcome, but we all have those types of things no matter if we have two legs or two arms,” he said. “We all have these things that we have to overcome.”

And as for next year, Dave. Go easy on Bledsoe.

To learn more about Dave Stevens, visit DaveStevensSpeaks.com.