Brady like a virus that won’t stop
TAMPA, Fla. — The TB12 virus hasn’t gone anywhere. Florida’s other pandemic remains as virulent as ever.
The Dallas Cowboys made the mistake of taking a twopoint fourth-quarter lead with 84 seconds remaining on the clock against a team featuring Tom Brady at quarterback here Thursday night. Such fourth-quarter comebacks are commonplace for Brady, much like pliability. He now has 49 of them.
If you weren’t among the nearly 26 million viewers who watched the game on NBC or its related streaming platforms, you missed Brady meticulously and confidently driving his team into field goal range to seal a 31-29 win. The new TB12-Tampa variant has won nine straight and hasn’t lost a game in 287 days.
All the masks and mandates on the planet can’t slow this spread. The Cowboys came close, but continued their run of futility in falling to 0-6 against Brady.
As Bill Belichick, a fistful of radio talkers and millions of others pine for the eradication of TB12, his performance in the NFL season opener again turned the past 20 years into a blur.
NBC aired a clip of Brady during the 2002 seasonopener, with John Madden prognosticating about Brady’s future greatness. Nineteen years to the day later, Brady continued to both amaze and confuse. The 44year-old Brady threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns. He completed 32 of 50 attempts and had two picks. One of those came on a Fail Mary to end the first half. The other was a wounded duck tipped by Leonard Fournette. Two of Brady’s scoring strikes landed in the ample hands of Rob Gronkowski, who was his own contagion when attacking Dallas’ defense. Antonio Brown and Gronkowski combined for 13 catches, 211 yards receiving and 3 TDs.
Just like old times, meaning Super Bowl 55.
It’s here where we must remind you of three inconvenient truths.
One, the Patriots dumped Brown amid sexual assault allegations after 11 days with the team in 2019. Brown never faced criminal charges from those lurid civil claims, formally codified in a September 2019 lawsuit. The details of the allegations raised against Brown were reported after he signed with New England. Public pressure and Robert Kraft’s own personal legal issues at the time were critical factors in the decision to dump Brown despite the lack of criminal charges. Brown has since settled his civil case with former trainer Britney Taylor.
Brown, obviously, remains cleared to play in the NFL. Just not in Foxboro. Send your hate email to Roger Goodell for allowing it. Not to me for pointing this out.
Two, the Patriots traded Gronk. Twice, He was dealt to the Lions before the 2018 season but scuttled that deal by threatening to retire. The Patriots shipped him (or his rights) to the Bucs for real in 2020 after his pseudo-retirement.
Three, Brady. The Critical Brady Theorists want you to believe Kraft was powerless to stop Brady from leaving and that Kraft gifted Brady his freedom after the 2019 season. Using the same “technicality mentality” that clears Brown to play or claims Gronk “quit on the Patriots,” that point is correct. The Patriots could have franchised Brady ahead of the 2020 season. They did not because both sides agreed to it as part of a oneyear deal in 2019. The Patriots also chose not to sign Brady to a two-year deal at that time, which would have guaranteed Brady the money and security he would get from the Bucs.
Belichick, meanwhile, wanted Brady gone in favor of Jimmy Garoppolo three years before the TB12 virus escaped from the lab in Foxboro.
Disagree? Let’s go to Page 457 of “The Dynasty” by Jeff Benedict. It remains a mustread. This tome has been blessed by the team and got a push on the Patriots Twitter feed the other day when the paperback version was released. This is as “official” as the Party Line gets when it comes to the past quartercentury for Patriots Kremlinologists.
“Left to his own devices, Belichick would have preferred to move on from Brady and keep Garoppolo,” Benedict writes about the days after Super Bowl 51.
The Bucs’ Super Bowl 55 victory celebration was a low-key affair when compared to the choreographed spectacles produced by the Red Sox and Patriots during the Score of Supremacy.
It was not as entertaining as the Lombardi Trophy debauchery that occurred on the Hillsborough River last February. But this championship celebration did happen. As noted previously, unless your Boston Red Sox somehow learn to pitch, hit and field at a major-league level and win the 2021 World Series, New England will be locked into its longest title drought since Red Auerbach lit his cigar in the Celtics locker room after Boston beat Houston in Game 6 of the 1986 NBA Finals.
Fireworks and videos jazzed up those inside Raymond James Stadium Thursday, many of whom were sufficiently lubricated if not vaccinated. The celebration included a flyover featuring F/A-18 Hornets. The Navy jets did not spray the crowd with any vaccines, nor did they deploy any ordnance. Given the animosity between the Sunshine State and the White House, that was a pleasant surprise to the 65,566 in attendance. They comprised the largest crowd to watch an NFL game in person since 2019.
The acrid smell of fireworks along with the late summertime heat and humidity that’s made Florida famous were prevalent as Brady made his record 300th career NFL start. Brady’s first start came on Sept. 30, 2001. Smoke and God knows what else was still emanating from Ground Zero. Drew Bledsoe was sidelined after being annihilated by Mo Lewis of the Jets in the Patriots first game after 9/11 a week earlier.
Brady’s 303rd NFL start will likely come in Week 4 against the Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Oct. 3. Brady could break the all-time NFL passing record that night. He needs just 775 yards to eclipse Drew Brees.
Just another reminder that some viruses never go away.