PSYCHE KILLER
Five-time winner Brady gets into opponents’ heads even BEFORE he steps on to the pitch
TOM BRADY can beat any team in the NFL before he even sets foot on the pitch.
That is the opinion of former NFL players Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell, who reckon Brady’s mind games begin long before teams try to put a stop to the New England Patriots and their 40-year-old quarterback.
Brady already has five Super Bowl winning rings and Umenyiora – who helped the New York Giants inflict Brady’s only two Super Bowl losses – says if Philadelphia don’t wise up, they will become just another statistic.
Twelve months ago, Atlanta led New England 28-3, before Brady engineered the biggest comeback win in Super Bowl history. And two weeks ago, he brought them back from the dead against Jacksonville to reach tomorrow night’s final in Minneapolis.
So, can the Eagles succeed where the Falcons and Jaguars failed? Umenyiora said: “That remains to be seen, but I think they have the talent.
They have the natural ability to be able to do that, but mentally is where a lot of these guys are falling off. Are they mentally strong enough to do it? We don’t know yet.
“Even when you are at home, watching, you sense that something is coming when you watch them play.
“When we were playing them, we hadn’t seen quite so much of them, so it didn’t really affect us.
“But now, you get a big lead and you’re not safe. You don’t feel comfortable because you’ve seen him do
‘When you give Brady the ball with any time left he is dangerous. He just eats up defences’
it so many times before.” And Umenyiora reckons teams can only overcome the Brady mystique if they truly believe they have the upper hand over the five-time champion.
“We thought we were better, simple as that,” he said. “Mentally, you can’t go in there, thinking Brady is going to be able to do what he has proven he can do for the last couple of years.
“You have to go in there thinking you are better, and are going to be able to accomplish what you set out to do.
“If you really believe that, I think you can do it.”
Umenyiora’s co-BBC presenter Bell, formerly of the Cowboys, Texans and Giants, agrees.
He said: “When you give Brady the ball, with any time left on the clock, he is dangerous. He is used to being in that position. He just eats defences up.
“If you get ahead of them, you still need to attack. You can’t get conservative like you would against any other team. You can’t say, ‘OK, now let’s control the clock, slow the game down and try to win this thing.’”
So, does Brady (with the Vince Lombardi trophy after winning the Super Bowl last year, above) have a weakness? Bell added: “He’s the kind of quarterback that likes to step up in the pocket and deliver the pass. You’ve got to make him move side to side. That’s where he’s not good.
“If you can make him do that, make him look down at the rush coming at him, it really disrupts him.”
But that is easier said than done.