Tom Brady excited, ready to lead Buccaneers into playoffs
TAMPA, Fla. — New team, same ole Tom Brady.
The six-time Super Bowl champion who left New England for sunny Florida is in the playoffs for a NFLrecord 18th time in 21 years, and eager to build on an ever-expanding legacy in his first postseason appearance with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Bill Belichick and the Patriots are home watching following a historic twodecade run with the 43year-old quarterback, who’s now pumping vitality into a franchise with the worst all-time winning percentage in the four major professional sports.
Brady led New England to the Super Bowl nine times in 20 seasons, appearing in 41 playoff games and winning 30 — both records.
The Bucs, who will end a
13-year postseason drought when they face Washington in a NFC wild-card game Saturday night, have played
15 playoff games in the club’s 45-season history.
“Anytime you make the playoffs, it’s a good feeling, and it’s a good opportunity to be playing this weekend, a privilege for any of us,” Brady said Wednesday.
“We’re a team that’s made a bunch of improvements over the course of the year, and we have to be at our best. That’s what this part of the season is all about,” the three-time league MVP added. “The regular season is what it is.
You realize you put it in the books, but we’re here to win playoff games.”
Brady left New England in free agency, signing a two-year, $50 million contract with the Bucs, who’ve surrounded him with an All-Star cast of playmakers that includes receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown, tight end Rob Gronkowski and running backs Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette.
An improved defense has helped Brady continue to defy Father Time, too.
“It’s amazing because when you’re out there watching him in practice, you’re like, ‘This guy looks like he’s 30, maybe 33 at most,’ ” coach Bruce Arians said.
It’s never been Brady’s style to call attention to his accomplishments, so he lets his play speak for what he’s been able to do this season without benefit of a normal offseason or preseason to prepare for his transition to a new team.
With a franchise-record 40 touchdown passes, he joined Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks to throw at least 40 in multiple seasons. It also tied Russell Wilson for the second most in the league this year behind’s Rodgers’ 48.
“When he first signed I said, ‘OK, we’ll be a 40 (touchdown) and 10 (interception) team,’ ” Arians said. “I was expecting practice, I was expecting OTAs and those things. What he’s done with none of that — especially this last half of the season — is incredible.”
Brady enters the playoffs coming off throwing for 1,067 yards and 10 touchdowns over the last eight quarters he played. He rallied the Bucs from double-digit deficits to win four times this season and has thrown for at least two TDs in seven consecutive games.
“As a player, he really hasn’t changed,” Gronkowski, the quarterback’s favorite target in New England, said. “From the second I first met him, he’s been all-in — all-in with practices, all-in at meetings, all-in trying to get better every single day.”
In some ways, Brady has exceeded Arians’ expectations.
“His leadership is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Peyton Manning is the only thing close,” said Arians, who’s worked with Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer and Andrew Luck while establishing a reputation as a quarterback whisperer.
“It’s a never-ending thing with him, the perfectionist, to get everything right in practice,” Arians added. “Also, his calmness on the sideline in games when we’re not winning, saying ‘We’re going to win.’ Those type of things. You put those in a bottle and you make a bunch of money.”