IT STILL IS TOM’S TIME
Ageless Brady is as good as ever
Tom Brady has been in the NFL so long that Jason Garrett was an inactive, third-string Giants quarterback the first time Brady faced Big Blue as a New England Patriot in 2003.
“They’re going to make a Mount Rushmore of football players at some point, and the first face they chisel will be that guy’s face,” Garrett said this week. “He’s the best that ever walked. To think he’s 44 years old and probably playing the best ball of his career, it’s really amazing. He’s an inspiration to everybody in and out of sports.”
What Brady is doing defies logic and science.
The seven-time Super
Bowl champion leads the NFL with 27 touchdown passes in this 2021 season, his 22nd in the league. He is third in passing yards with 2,870.
He has thrown more regular-season TD passes in his 40s (152 in 73 games) than he did in his 20s (147 in 96 games). He has a 76.48% career winning percentage all-time, 270-83-0, including both regular season and playoffs.
Certainly, his agelessness on the football field, credited to Brady’s diligence and work with personal trainer Alex Guerrero, will warrant a closer look eventually.
That said, Brady is not invincible. And he’s been a sore loser.
After wins, he posts hype videos on Instagram celebrating and gloating. But he has thrown four interceptions in back-to-back Bucs losses, two to the Saints and two to Washington.
And after the Washington loss, a sour Brady told reporters to “make it quick.”
He tried to end the press conference after the third question about his INTs.
“We started with the ball and they came away with it,” he said, trying to walk away.
A reporter asked him to stay and keep talking.
“What else?” Brady cranked. His response to how he was feeling?
“You know, I like to win,” he deadpanned.
The most interesting part of Tampa Bay’s dynamic, meanwhile, is coach Bruce Arians’ willingness to publicly blame Brady for his poor play.
Arians was asked after the Washington loss what was going on with Brady and his receivers given the frequent interceptions.
“It had nothing to do with the receivers,” Arians said. “It was him.”
Arians, in a conference call with the New York media, said he finds that players respond to the hard, blunt truth when he shares it.
“I’m not calling anybody out, I’m just answering a question and stating a fact,” Arians said. “He loves hard coaching, but that’s not coaching. That’s just answering questions.”
Brady had not done an interview with the Tampa media through Friday. The presumption is that an angry Brady is bad news for the Giants defense come Monday night.
But Giants safety Logan Ryan, a former Brady teammate in New England, said Brady doesn’t have to be angry to tune you up.
“People crack me up when they say, ‘Oh, he’s coming off of a loss. How is he going to come?’” Ryan said Thursday before a positive COVID test likely knocked him out of the game. “This guy, anything can set him off in terms of wanting to win. I think he’s best off a big win, he’s best off a big loss. Anything motivates this guy.”
Giants coach Joe Judge, a longtime special teams coach with the Patriots, called Brady “arguably the greatest player to ever play the game.” And he said if you know Brady, it’s not surprising at all that he’s doing this at 44.
“You have to understand what he does every day to put himself in that position,” Judge said. “How you eat, how you sleep, how you train, how you prepare, what you do off the field, your level of preparation on film.”
Judge said “you’re not going to trick” Brady. “This guy has seen it all,” he said. The Giants’ recent bend-but-don’t-break defensive strategy will not work against Brady, either. He is more than willing to take short completions and march steadily down the field.
So ultimately the Giants’ Monday fortunes will come down to execution.
There is one statistic that especially doesn’t bode well for the Giants.
Brady has only lost three games in a row once: a four-game losing streak from Sept. 29-Oct. 27, 2002. Giants edge rusher Azeez Ojulari was two years old at the time.
But Judge’s willingness to praise Brady at the expense of his team only went so far.
“Over the course of his career there’s a million stats you can tie into a lot of things,” he said. “I don’t think any of that stuff’s relative to what we’re going to do or relevant to what we’re going to do Monday night.”
PARITY ON ANOTHER LEVEL
Every professional sports league strives for parity. Salary caps, conference and division realignments, and major schedule changes are all designed to keep as many teams relevant as long as possible, which keeps eyeballs on the TV and fans in the seats. This season, NFL suits are smiling looking at the absurd amount of teams still not “out of it,” thanks to several controllable variables. As noted by the NFL Network’s Andrew Siciliano, 15 of the 16 NFC teams are either in — or within two wins of — a playoff spot. The Detroit Lions (0-8-1) are the only team that is long gone. Washington, the Giants, the Seahawks and the Bears, all tied at 3-6, still can claim hope thanks to the NFL adding a 7th playoff team in each conference and a 17th game to the regular-season schedule. This year’s salary cap also plummeted $15.7 million due to financial shortfalls from the pandemic-impacted 2020 season. The result is 10 NFC teams that have between three and five wins, with the Saints (5-4) and Panthers (5-5) currently teetering in the sixth and seventh playoff spots, but tons of teams nipping at their heels. There are only three teams with fewer than three wins in the AFC: the Jets, Jaguars and Texans. And there are eight AFC teams with between five and three wins, with the Steelers (5-3-1) and Chargers (5-4) barely holding the sixth and seventh seeds in that conference, too … The Philadelphia Eagles signed tight end Dallas Goedert and corner Avonte Maddox to contract extensions this weekend, making that four core players the Birds have locked up during this season, including left tackle Jordan Mailata and edge rusher Josh Sweat. Goedert’s monstrous four-year, $59 million extension with $35.7 million guaranteed makes him the second-highest paid tight end by average annual salary ($14.75 million) to the 49ers’ George Kittle ($15 million). Goedert is a very good player, but he’ll need to play better to justify those numbers. Maddox got a three-year, $22.5 million extension with $13.3 million guaranteed. … Great job by the Denver Broncos extending wide receiver Tim Patrick. The former Utah receiver, first signed as an undrafted free agent by the Baltimore Ravens in May 2017, is an ascending player and a tough cover. Patrick, 27, has the size of a tight end but the skills and agility of a wideout. … The Dallas
Cowboys (7-2) can put a nail in the NFC East’s coffin with two games in five days starting Sunday. But the Boys will be without wide receiver Amari Cooper for both games due to an unvaccinated positive COVID test. And the Chiefs (6-4) await at Arrowhead on Sunday followed by a Thanksgiving Day visit from the Las Vegas Raiders. Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City can confirm that they are back and improving by beating Dallas on Sunday, but a low-scoring loss would show us that last week’s outburst in Sin City had a lot more to do with the lowly Raiders.
THEY SAID IT
“Is that Tavon Austin? I used to watch his West Virginia highlights every day. I wanted to be him ‘til I was like 21.” — Nyheim Hines, Colts running back and punt returner, in awe of Jaguars receiver/returner Tavon Austin pregame in Week 10.