Looking a right Twit over Brady & Belichick take

I WROTE a column a couple of months ago that may soon come back to haunt me via the Twitter account @OldTakesExposed.

For those who don’t know, @OldTakesExposed is a popular account that retweets old sporting takes from journalists that turn out to be horribly wide of the mark. People read them, then ridicule the journalist, usually in good taste, for what turned out to be such a poor take.

The column I’m referring to is one I wrote at the start of September about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Belichick and Brady (top right) parted ways in the NFL off-season after a 20-year partnership that delivered a record six Super Bowls for the New England Patriots.

While Belichick (bottom right) stayed at the Patriots, ots, Brady, unwanted by y his team, signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In my column, I suggested the Patriots would be fine under the greatest test coach of all time, while the 43-year-old Brady would go on to be a flop.

I refused to believe the Patriots would have let Brady go if he had any more juice in the tank, especially in the face of such nostalgia. There was no way in my eyes Belichick would make that mistake. I didn’t stop there.

I went on to suggest that not only did Brady have nothing left in the tank, but that he had likely been running on fumes for the past few years, and that the Patriots successes were primarily down to Belichick’s masterful management of his declining star. I think the phrase I used was something like – although they make a great partnership, Belichick is George Michael and Brady is Andrew Ridgeley.

I’d now like to formally apologise to Tom Brady and all Tampa Bay fans. A fortnight ago, the Buccs held a 3-2 record and my bold prediction that they would finish 8-8 was holding strong.

However, now Brady has had a few weeks in his new system, far from being a flop, he is playing MVP-calibre football.

Having dispatched Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packe Packers by 28 points, he went on to e embarrass the Las Vegas Raiders, throwing for four touchdowns and 3 369 yards. To Tonight, he plays the New N York Giants an and I expect him to p put them to the s sword too.

I am f flabbergasted at h his performances. Th Therefore, with less than half a season gone, I’d like to eat my humble pie now before it is served to me full force by Twitter at the end of the season – because the Buccaneers could easily make the Super Bowl.

Even when I thought Brady was done and, at times, carried by coach Belichick, I acknowledged he would go down as the greatest NFL player of all time. Now, though, with the unbelievable way he is proving himself at a new team and at his age, he is putting himself firmly in the conversation for greatest sportsperson of all time.