Brady matches Montana records
Patriots superstar, who worships Ganesha, shares the record with four Super Bowl wins along with three MVPs
When New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady reached his locker, about an hour after a 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl in Phoenix last Sunday and a series of interviews, he was done talking to the news media. But his locker spoke for him.
Prominently displayed was a four-inch bronze elephant-headed statue — Ganesha, the Hindu God. Or as Brady quietly told a visitor, “The remover of obstacles.”
Two team officials shielded him from the news media with the same intensity that the New England Patriots offensive line protected him from the Seattle Seahawks.
“Tom’s done,” one shouted as the MVP-winning quarterback arrived. But the locker spoke.
Ganesha, remover of obstacles, almost beckoned to the curious.
Brady knows obstacles better than most. A sixth-round pick out of Michigan. A season-ending injury that could have threatened his career.
Two heart-breaking Super Bowl defeats, extending his Super Bowl title drought to a decade. And then the Deflategate controversy.
Ganesha illustrates the spiritual side of his psyche developed with trainer and adviser Alex Guerrero. But the spiritual is coupled by mental commitment, evidence by more items in his locker.
Lying next to Ganesha were five note cards and handwritten notes that included: “Bend knees more on drop.”
And, perhaps most important: “Be on toes.”
He was on his toes all night, shaking off two interceptions, throwing four touchdown passes and, in what was again Brady at his best, leading the Patriots back from a 10-point deficit. On his toes on a 20-yard pass to Rob Gronkowski on the game-winning drive.
“Tom made some nice throws,” Gronkowski said. “Excellent drive. Excellent execution.”
He could have been speaking of Brady’s career as much as the drive.
Brady, 37, can now rival Joe Montana as the greatest quarterback of all time. They are tied with Terry Bradshaw with four Super Bowl victories, and Brady has appeared in a record six Super Bowls with three MVPs.
Brady also broke Montana’s record for career touchdown passes in the Super Bowl on Sunday, throwing four against the Seahawks to increase his total to 13.
And Brady has the highest career play-off winning percentage among quarterbacks (.724), while Montana (.696) ranks second.
“He’s the best quarterback to ever play this game, man,” Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis said. “And I feel like all the hard work pays off for Tom. I think it’s really awesome. It puts another championship under his belt.”
Brady celebrated with his teammates as if they were family.
Receiver Brian Tyms passed by. “BT, way to go,” Brady gushed, and the two clasped hands.
Embracing well-wishers and posing for pictures — each time, holding f our fingers i n the air, representing his four Super Bowl victories — he looked like the proud father of a football family. But that’s a significant distinction between Brady’s first three Super Bowl titles and this latest — football family vs real family.
On the side of his locker, someone had taped a poster with blue- and red-painted handprints and the following message: “Go Patriots. Love you Daddy.”
Clearly the work of his son, Benjamin, and daughter, Vivian. With perhaps a a little help from their mother, Brady’s wife, Gisele Bundchen. But there was some vanity, too. Brady, unlike his teammates, got two lockers. In the second he had three suits and a sport coat that would match his ankle-high black boots.
When the news media cleared out, he selected one of the black suits, a black-and-white checked shirt and, with obstacles removed, with the note cards stored and his kid’s poster stored away, Brady walked into into the cool night air and toward the team bus with impeccable style.
Meanwhile, as the legacies of Brady and Patriots coach Bill Belichick are debated after a fourth Super Bowl crown together, the two could be 6-0 in Super Bowls save for a pair of miracle plays.
“We’ve had a couple of tough losses in this game,” Brady said. “This one came down to the end and this time we made the plays.”
Seattle was one yard away from a game-winning touchdown when undrafted safety Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception with 20 seconds left preserved the Pats’ victory.
“It was just an incredible play. A championship play,” said Brady.
Turnabout is fair play, though that seems awkward when applied to the Patriots, who were heavily punished in 2007 in Spygate for videotaping an opponent’s signals, and are now being investigated over using underinflated balls.
Seven years ago on the same Arizona gridiron, the Pats’ quest for a perfect season was denied with the help of a flabbergasting catch by backup David Tyree that fueled a gamewinning fourth-quarter drive by the longshot New York Giants.
Tyree made the “Helmet Catch” as quarterback Eli Manning bounced off pass rushers, heaved the ball downfield and a leaping Tyree pinned it against his helmet and kept the ball there, off the ground, as he was tackled.
Four years later, t he Giants ambushed them again with another comeback late in the fourth quarter.
On first down from their 12, Manning arced a long pass down the left sideline to Mario Manningham, who was inches from stepping out of bounds, that sent the Giants on their way.
Brady and Belichick’s Super Bowl appearances have come over 13 years, drawing comparisons to the San Francisco 49ers, who won five Super Bowls between 1981 and 1994, with Montana winning four and Steve Young the fifth.