NEW TWIST TO OLD STORY
At 43 and defying conventional wisdom, Tom Brady has become easy to root for
The famous Peyton Manning rivalry is old news. Philip Rivers has retired, and Drew Brees is one sentence away from doing the same. The New England Patriots’ two-decade dynasty is finally in the past.
The “system quarterback” that so many of us — millions and millions of NFL lovers and football fans across America — once loved to hate?
Tom Brady has outlasted it all.
And, my gosh, has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 43year-old QB become easy to root for in 2021.
An old-fashioned American story of perseverance, resilience and relentlessness, if we’re really being honest.
“I think about that quite a bit actually. I think just being grateful for all of the blessings in my life. I’ve got more than anyone could imagine,” Brady told reporters this week, discussing a career that started in New England with the No. 199 overall pick of the 2000 draft and already features six Super Bowl rings. “In the end, I just try to do the best that I can do with every situation. You understand that there are a lot of people that have supported me over the time to get to this point.
“Any time you get the chance to realize your dreams — between high school, college and pro football, I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years. I’m just so appreciative of all the different people who have helped me along the way. So grateful for all of the experiences that I’ve had. Hopefully I can, in my own way, give back as best I can to other people who are maybe looking to achieve and accomplish their dreams too.”
Patrick Mahomes, 25, is already the future of the NFL. League MVP, Super Bowl MVP, SB LIV winner. Everything you could want (and more) from a modern franchise QB, just four seasons into a career that currently feels like a 100 percent lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
I, like you and every football devotee you know, marvel at what Mahomes can do with a football. His arm. His field vision. His surreal coolness, sideline intensity and even his legs. Heck, Mahomes doesn’t even have to look at his intended target before throwing one of the best passes you’ve ever seen.
Will anyone be surprised if Andy Reid’s Chiefs win their second consecutive Super Bowl at Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium?
No. The new dynasty talk will immediately begin, and the distance between the Texans (and Deshaun Watson) and Mahomes’ Chiefs will only grow wider.
But what once felt like a boring formality — Brady back in the big game, winning another silver trophy — would represent the ultimate NFL triumph if it happens again Sunday.
It will also inspire 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds and 80-yearolds across the country.
And kids.
And normal, everyday human beings who work out a few times a week for a couple months. Then stop. Then start again. Then repeat the uneven cycle for years that become decades.
Brady is 43 — 43??! — and he’s doing all this?
Then I can do this.
Time keeps ticking, but Brady keeps winning.
Spygate and Deflategate were replaced by Atlanta 28-3 in Super Bowl LI, which ended up as
34-28 New England in overtime inside an absolutely stunned
NRG Stadium. But four years ago already feels like a decade, and the QB who once appeared to be another Bill Belichick chess piece has turned avocado ice cream, pliability, the TB12 method and the Patriots’ constant drama into a testament to personal willpower.
Historically, Brady is already set up to be the best story of Super Bowl LV before the first points touch the board.
Maybe you’re that one person that loves to tell everyone you feel better in your 40s than you did in your 20s. Congratulations.
I strained a calf playing tennis last year. When I played basketball before the coronavirus pandemic, my right knee randomly ached. The same thing sometimes now happens when I walk up the stairs or around a corner. My lower back tightens up when it feels like it. And as active as I try to be during this masked-up era — walking (myself and the dog), working out in the garage, riding a stationary bike while watching documentaries — yard work now officially counts as exercise.
My wrists can also hurt when I have to type too many dysfunctional Texans columns.
I’m … normal.
Brady is Yoda, ridiculously expensive vintage wine and a famous European church, rolled into one.
Better with time.
Fact: He’ll turn 44 on Aug. 3. More facts: He threw for 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns while completing 65.7 percent of his passes and starting all 16 games this season. He outsmarted Belichick and brought a retired Rob Gronkowski to Tampa Bay. Then the franchise that Brady instantly remade just by signing with the once-laughable Bucs answered a 7-5 record in Week 12 with three consecutive road playoff victories during a year when practice was limited.
That just doesn’t happen. None of it.
Ever.
Until Brady did it at 43.
Joe Montana exchanged San Francisco for Kansas City at 37. Those Chiefs beat the Oilers in the playoffs and reached the AFC Championship game in 1993. But a 30-13 Buffalo blowout followed and Montana was done at 38, bowing out with a wild-card defeat.
Brady was never a runner and the NFL now overprotects its QBs. But Bruce Arians allowed his new QB to air it out this season, and the Bucs don’t take down Aaron Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers without Brady’s first-half brilliance in the NFC Championship game.
Cam Newton has risen and fallen. Dual-threat QBs have increasingly become the norm — Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Watson and Mahomes represent the NFL’s cool, sharp new age.
Brady looks like he’s in the best shape of his life and is playing in his 10th Super Bowl at 43 years old in 2021.
Even if he loses this Sunday, the greatest QB of all-time has already won it all.