Brady earns 3rd MVP award

Lynch, Seahawks in contract talks

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As a kid, years before he became a pretty good quarterback in his own right, Tom Brady idolized Joe Montana.

Now, at age 37, Brady owns just as many Super Bowl championships — and just as many Super Bowl MVP awards — as the Pro Football Hall of Famer.

And no QB in history has more.

Brady completed 37 of 50 passes for 328 yards with four touchdown passes, each to a different receiver, including an 8-for-8, 65-yard bit of perfection on the drive that led to the go-ahead score with about 2 minutes left Sunday night. That performance, and a victory-clinching interception by rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler, lifted the New England Patriots to a 28-24 comeback victory over the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in a Super Bowl with a slow start and a “Whoa!” finish.

This was not Brady at his best throughout. He threw two interceptions, including one deep in Seattle territory in the first quarter, and another in the third that led to points for the Seahawks.

That’s part of why the Patriots trailed 24-14 in the fourth quarter, before Brady got the comeback going.

“It wasn’t the way we drew it up. Certainly, throwing a couple of picks didn’t help,” said Brady, who broke Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl record of 34 completions set last year. “It was a lot of mental toughness. Our team has had it all year. We never doubted each other, so that’s what it took. That was a great football team we beat. I’m just so happy for our team.”

And to think, back in late September, folks were writing off Brady, saying his best days were long behind him, especially right after a 41-14 loss at Kansas City that dropped the Patriots to 2-2.

“Every team has a journey,” Brady said Sunday, “and a lot of people lost faith in us early. But we held strong. We held together.”

LYNCH: The Seahawks would like to extend the contract of running back Marshawn Lynch, a team source confirmed Sunday.

But two sources also indicated that talks are not as far as along as reported in an NFL. com story published Sunday.

That report said the Seahawks hope to sign Lynch to a contract that would keep him with the team “for years to come” and already have offered a contract worth more than $10 million for the 2015 season.

But other sources said the team and Lynch have yet to talk specifics and noted that nothing would be completed until after the new NFL league year begins March 10.

MARA DIES: Ann Mara, the matriarch of one of pro football’s most prominent, respected families and a coowner of the New York Giants, died early Super Bowl Sunday. She was 85.

“She has been the leader of our family in every way, and we will miss her dearly,” John Mara, the team’s president and eldest of her 11 children with the late Wellington Mara, said in a statement issued by the Giants.

Mara had been hospitalized since the day after suffering a head injury in a fall on the ice outside her home Jan. 18.

HARBAUGH: Ravens coach John Harbaugh was adamant Sunday in denying that the Ravens sparked the investigation into the Patriots’ deflated footballs in the AFC Championship game.

There have been unconfirmed reports that Harbaugh or the Ravens tipped off the Colts about the issue.

“I heard all that. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it,” Harbaugh said on NBC. “It’s ridiculous. It never happened.”

FALCONS: Atlanta is being investigated for possibly piping artificial crowd noise into the Georgia Dome over the past two seasons.