Whining is just fine as long as winning follows
foxborough, mass.» om Brady has repeatedly said he doesn’t see a future for himself in politics. It’s a sad commentary on our democracy that an NFL quarterback considers American politics far too bruising and brutal a field. But his aversion to political life doesn’t mean Brady is above campaigning on the football field, where decision-makers find his message persuasive.
As the posturing and politicking has picked up ahead of Sunday’s AFC championship game in Denver between the New England Patriots and the Broncos, the Broncos have pointed out the obvious — that superstar players like Brady try to influence calls and occasionally do.
Their delivery has been hyperbolic and painfully transparent, painting Brady as a crybaby and a whiner. But that’s all the better to make sure they get the benefit of a few borderline hits on TB12 on Sunday thanks to their verbal roughing of the passer.
One of the most overrated tropes in sports is trash talk supplying added motivation in a game where the stakes are already Mount Everest high and obvious. With Deflategate litigation still pending
Tand given Brady’s obsession with winning, if he needs any added motivation to advance to a seventh Super Bowl and to try to win his fifth, there is a problem. Plus, what Broncos defensive ends Antonio Smith and Malik Jackson said about Brady being the biggest complainer after getting sacked feels less like genuine denouncement and more like making sure they hit their talking points so they can hit the quarterback.
The Broncos led the NFL in sacks this season with 52. They sacked TB12 three times and registered nine quarterback hits in their 30-24 overtime win over the Patriots on Nov. 29.
Denver collected six roughing-the-passer penalties this season — including one on Brady. Only Houston and Miami had more, with eight.
The Denver disses aren’t even original. The Baltimore Ravens have been spouting this stuff since 2009, when Brady got grazed by Terrell Suggs around the knee, motioned for a flag and it came right out like he had just ordered it via room service.
That’s why Brady didn’t seem upset Wednesday when the Broncos “trash talk” was raised to him.
“I’m not sure what the other quarterbacks do. If the refs want to throw the flag, I love when they throw flags on the defenders, absolutely,” said Brady. “It advances our team, so that’s just part of football.”
If Brady can coax a call, he will do it. So will every other player in the league, from the defenders who are getting blocked and flail to feign holding to the wide receivers who plead for pass interference.
As Patriots wide receiver Brandon LaFell said, Brady “is not a whiner; he is a winner.” Most winners are both, to be honest. Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser, as the cliche goes.
Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a legendary whiner. LeBron James has inherited Kareem’s sour-faced kvetching mantle. David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox has elevated grousing about calls into performance art.
Brady is not a crybaby. He is a feverish competitive who can’t hide his emotions, has little tolerance for failure on the football field and is not above trying to use his superstar status to benefit his team. There is nothing wrong with that. Unless, he’s not your quarterback. Like so many perceptions in sports, the difference between winner and a whiner comes down to preferred laundry and championship jewelry.
In reality, it’s the Broncos whining about Brady whining.
Just whine, baby.