With Greater Boston besieged by swirling winds and heavy snow, hundreds of flights into Logan Airport were canceled or diverted earlier this week. But not Drew Bledsoe's, which left Montana on Tuesday morning and arrived at 10:30 Tuesday night. Nor that of his agent, David Dunn, who took the Monday night red-eye from Los Angeles and arrived Tuesday morning.

And so, 2 1/2 hours of negotiating Tuesday wrapped up a process that took months. The Patriots held a press conference Wednesday to announce Bledsoe's $103 million, 10-year deal, the richest in NFL history, eclipsing the $100 million, 10-year deal Brett Favre just signed with the Packers.

So why were the three men on the dais -- Bledsoe, owner Bob Kraft and coach Bill Belichick -- smiling?

Because Bledsoe's new deal, which voids the last year of his previous contract, saves the Patriots, who were $2 million under the salary cap, an additional $1.5 million. And, it was signed in time to help the Patriots during the free agent signing period, which began last Friday.

"That, ultimately, is the motivation for doing this deal," Bledsoe said.

Kraft also said Bledsoe has a chance to be remembered in Boston like Ted Williams, Bill Russell and Larry Bird, each having played his entire career in the city.

"I remember feeling sad when Bobby Orr left," Kraft said of the NHL Hall of Famer who left Boston for Chicago near the end of his career. "I saw this as an opportunity to sign one of the great Patriots for the rest of his career."

Kraft and his subordinates supplied the kick-start, tracking down Bledsoe by phone at his Montana retreat late last week and leaving what Bledsoe called "about eight messages simultaneously." Bledsoe returned Kraft's call and they talked twice for what Bledsoe said was 60 or 90 minutes. That moved them much closer and it was time for Dunn to fly in and finish the deal.

The $103 million includes an $8 million signing bonus and a $6 million injury guarantee. The contract has three option periods for later restructuring. For all its richness, both sides say it contains no cap-busting balloon payment down the road that will cripple the Patriots the way quarterback Mark Brunell's long-term deal is currently crippling the Jacksonville Jaguars. In fact, given that the salary cap has grown every year, Bledsoe's deal may eventually seem like a bargain.

Although, as Kraft said Wednesday, "The money here being saved is like my wife going to Nieman-Marcus and telling me all the money she saved at the sale."

Friendship and respect allowed Kraft and Bledsoe to quickly find what Bledsoe called "a middle ground," that allows Bledsoe to get paid in line with his NFL value, while also allowing the Patriots enough cap relief to sign players who can return the Patriots to the NFL's upper echelon.

"As a coach," Belichick said, "it's very important to know that your key players will be with you for a while. It makes it a lot easier for our planning."

"If Drew had wanted to test the market through free agency," Kraft said, "he would have gotten a lot more money than he has gotten from us."

But, according to the Patriots, the only part of the contract that is guaranteed is a four-year portion worth no less than $14 million and possibly a little more than $30 million. Bledsoe will be 32 when the team must decide to pick up additional years.

The team does have several options. After year one, the team could pick up an option for the entire 10 years by paying Bledsoe a $7.2 million bonus. But because the current collective bargaining agreement is only in place through 2006, bonus money can only be prorated through that year. That, along with the fact that 10 years is a long time to lock up a 29-year-old quarterback, makes picking up that option unlikely.

The team's next option comes in November of 2004, when the team can pick up the option on years 5-7 by paying a $7 million bonus.

If the team picked up that option, Bledsoe's cap number would climb into double figures during year four and approach unmanageable numbers in the $13 million-$15 million range after year four.

"This," Kraft said, "is a very happy day in the life of the New England Patriots."

There haven't been many of those lately, not with the team falling to 5-11 in Belichick's first season as coach, the Patriots worst record since Bledsoe's rookie season in 1993. But Bledsoe, who led the Patriots to the Super Bowl just three years after they made him the first player chosen in the 1993 draft, always said last season that even in these tough times, he wanted to stay a Patriot.

Bledsoe, 29, has been voted to the Pro Bowl three times and owns every Patriots passing record worth having. But when the team struggled last season, there was speculation that Kraft and Belichick were not sold on Bledsoe as their quarterback, that they were looking to trade him so they could shore up several other positions and remake the team with a younger, more mobile quarterback.

"It has never once been in my mind," Kraft said. "Sometimes, our friends in the media like to stir the pot. To help circulation, I guess."