Comeback Brady now NFL’s Trump
Like prez, much-hated Pats find way to edge out rival
Not too long ago, the conversation was about “Trump supporter Tom Brady” and whether he owed America an apology for the Trump hat in his locker.
Today’s question is, “Are Tom Brady and the Patriots the NFL’s Donald Trump?”
And no, not just because everyone hates them, though that’s certainly part of it. With fans of both Trump and the Patriots, it’s hard to tell what their die-hard fans love more — winning, or watching the heartbreak of their defeated foes. If Twitter changed the word “Patriots” to “Trump,” my timeline Sunday would have been nearly identical to Election Day 2016.
Watching the game against Jacksonville with Boston Herald Radio’s Tom Shattuck and a gathering of only-slightly-inebriated Pats fans (just two beers, honey, I swear!), I had a strange sense of political deja vu. The Pats got pushed all over the field by the Jaguars defense. The Belichick strategy appeared to be a gridiron version of Muhammad Ali’s “rope-a-dope.”
As Shattuck put it, “Maybe we’re gonna let them keep the ball so long they tire themselves out.” Whatever it was, the Patriots spent the first three quarters of the game looking like they were just trying to hang on.
The same with candidate Trump running against alleged political powerhouse Hillary Clinton. From the Democratic National Convention through the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tapes, Trump looked like he was out of his league. Trump’s messaging was sloppy. He never led in the polls. He fumbled issue after issue, from Gold Star parents to Mexican-American judges.
Then came crunch time, and like Brady finding Danny “Playoff” Amendola in the end zone, Trump found his footing. Brady knows how to rally in the last five minutes, and Trump held five rallies in the last 24 hours of the campaign.
Trump isn’t president today because he dominated the race, but because he managed to somehow not get knocked out of it by mistakes and missteps that would have defeated any other candidate. He found a way to stay in the game.
And then, against all odds, win it.
“Here’s what Brady and Trump have in common,” a longtime GOP consultant told me yesterday. “For Tom Brady, those first three quarters never happened. He was able to put them completely out of his mind and focus on winning. Trump is the same way.”
And the trend continues into the Trump presidency. Trump’s “Wall,” for example, has inspired nothing but opposition from the first time he mentioned it. Democrats and Republicans alike have dismissed it as a non-starter, an unrealistic idea Trump was merely using as a bargaining chip. As recently as September, Illinois Democrat Rep. Luis Gutierrez was arrested at Trump Tower protesting Trump’s immigration policies, including the Wall. But on Sunday, just hours before the Pats’ comeback victory, this hardcore Trump opponent told CNN, “I’ll roll up my sleeves, I’ll go down there with bricks and mortar” and build the Wall if it would get a deal for illegal immigrant “Dreamers.”
So will Trump actually get his “big, beautiful wall”? He’s still in the game. That was the other odd connection between Trump and the Pats — the sense of inevitability. I never believed Trump would win the GOP nomination or the White House. But even as I made my very rational and indisputable arguments, in the back of my mind a voice kept telling me, “Give it up, Graham. He’s just gonna win.” It seemed both impossible and unavoidable at the same time.
So too with the Patriots. No doubt the sports pages of the Philly papers are full of columns, arguments and stats all making the case that the Eagles should be the favorites, that the Pats are absolutely beatable, that this is their game to lose.
But in their hearts, they know it’s already over. Tom Brady is going to be on that podium yet again, holding the trophy and basking in the boos of millions of Patriot haters from San Francisco to the Long Island Sound. The story has already been written. It’s just a matter of playing the game.
You have to wonder if U.S. Senate Democrats aren’t feeling the same way.