Brady swaps Boston for the Bucs to give sport a welcome distraction
While all of sport grinds to a halt, there is still player moves to monitor and the questions of where the big names will go to answer. Nick Westby reports.
YOU do not have to be a fan of American Football or of the NFL to have heard of the name Tom Brady.
He is one of those megastars whose name transcends the boundaries of their own sport; like football’s Ronaldo, golf ’s Tiger, tennis’s Roger or basketball’s LeBron.
So when the news broke that Brady was leaving the New England Patriots on Tuesday lunchtime, shortly after dawn Boston time, it sent shockwaves through American sport, the ripples of which could be felt over here across the pond.
Because Brady is such a huge name, and these are such desperate times for the world and for sport, that it needed a star to lift the gloom.
For the past week, the only stories to report on have been the unedifying recording of which sports had gone into lockdown over the global coronavirus pandemic.
Chronologically, from memory, it went something like this: tennis, NBA, NHL, Premier League, EFL, Test cricket, cycling, golf, ice hockey, rugby league, rugby union, racing, boxing.
The entire sporting calendar on hold. The world of sport frozen in time, forcing its heroes into self-isolation and its fans into a sense of sheer bewilderment, hungry for any scrap of news they could find.
Step forward the NFL, out of season and out of the firing line of any fraught boardroom conversations about whether to put public health first and suspend, or enormous sums of revenue at the top of its agenda and plough on.
The only decision the NFL had
THE GREATEST: to make was whether or not to postpone the start of its league year on March 18, a marker in the sand that signals what’s known as free agency frenzy, when players whose contracts are expiring or have expired can be hawked around to potential new suitors, the highest bidder traditionally prevailing.
Step forward Tom Brady. For 20 years he has been the allconquering quarterback of the Patriots.
From unheralded 196th pick in the 2000 draft to a SuperBowl title in his first half season as a starter, to six wins in the sport’s biggest game.
Nine times Brady and coach Bill Belichick took the Patriots to a SuperBowl in an unprecedented two decades of dominance.
Brady looked all set to end his career in New England, the perfect arc of the greatest career of all.
But there is a new chapter to be written with Brady signing on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a hitherto down-at-heel franchise with their one SuperBowl victory coincidentally sandwiched between Brady’s first two – punctuating what can only be described as decades of savage mediocrity.
Tampa Bay have not been to the play-offs since 2007.
Of the 32 teams in the NFL, they are one of the least fashionable, operate in a relatively small media market and are a name that barely resonates in America, let alone internationally, where the sport is continuing to grow.
Brady changes all that. TB12 as his self-styled brand is named, brings relevance to Tampa Bay.
Ironically, he has better weapons at his disposal than he did in his last days in New England, with all-pro wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin ready to catch his passes.
It is undoubtedly one of the reasons he has swapped Boston for the Bay, because even at his age, this luckless franchise has a better offense than the one he leaves behind under Foxboro, certainly now with No 12 under centre.
The NFL Draft at the end of April, when the best young men from college are selected, may well be postponed due to coronavirus.
But for now, the NFL landscape is dominated again by one man who will be 43 when the new season starts in September. If it starts at all. But until then, thanks heavens for Tom Brady.
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