For those of you who have been out of touch with the rest of the world and have just stumbled upon this thread...let me bring you up to speed:
TOM BRADY DEFEATED COVID!!!
Don’t tell that — Tom Brady was carried — to head coach Bruce Arians, who would know better than anyone else in the world, including you and I.
He has made it abundantly clear that Tom Brady is the principal reason for Tampa Bay’s extraordinary turnaround from perennial losers to Super Bowl champions, Arians: “It only took one man (Brady).”
Yes, Arians is doing a great job of playing to the press and ESPN's narrative there. I'm not taking anything away from TB12, he made a difference with intangibles. But he didn't play defense or O-Line yesterday and the amount of talent they surrounded him with is pretty good. I thought Arians did a great job of basically saving Gronk for the playoffs.
Don’t give it another thought, Steven. The old adage is still a true adage, “Haters gonna hate.“. Having closely followed Brady his entire career, I can tell you that I have heard every excuse in the book for every one of his Super Bowl wins. It’s never about him, according to many of his detractors. There’s always some reason, other than his play, for any of his seven Super Bowl wins. Some people are just never going to give the man credit for anything. They will find away, in their own minds at least, to make sure he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Or to only give him backhanded compliments. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
No, you’re right — Tampa Bay’s defense and offensive line were excellent yesterday. I was highly impressed by how well they played.
But Brady was excellent too. His passer rating of 125.8 was one of the highest ever in the Super Bowl. And of course his intangibles (to which you alluded) — leadership, focus, intensity, will to win, etc. — were a huge part of his team’s winning equation. But what else is new? The dude is just a stone-cold winner.
All in all it was a devastating performance by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from top to bottom. Just ask Patrick Mahomes, who probably had nightmares about that defense while trying to sleep last night.
As a Chiefs fan, I had a bad feeling before this game. First because of the preponderance of pundits picking the Chiefs, the fact that Bucs had lost but dominated the 2nd half in their previous meeting and the Bucs were on a hot streak. The Bucs of Dec / Jan were much better than the Bucs of Sep / Oct. Also the Chiefs asst. coach getting a DUI and seriously injuring a child really rubbed me the wrong way. There was something about that that indicated that KC's preparation was off.
I will say that if you had put Mahomes on the Bucs last night and Brady on the Chiefs and changed nothing else the Bucs would have won. Brady deserves immense credit for playing well but it was the Bucs domination of the line of scrimmage on both sides that won that game. The biggest criticism I have of the Chiefs is that they shouldn't have called those time outs at the end of the first half. Tampa was going to sit on the ball and the Chiefs could have gone into the locker room down 14-6 and getting the ball. Once it got to 21-6 the Chiefs had to throw and they couldn't pass block and that was it. My only grips with the officiating were the unsportsmanlike calls on Mathieu when jawing with Brady and on the Chiefs D Lineman for pushing the Bucs center after the Bucs player had pushed first. Those should have been no calls or offsetting. Also Suh, who is dirty AF, punched Mahomes in the head and it wasn't called. Having said all that the Bucs completely outplayed the Chiefs and deserved to win.
Now, believing Brady a little too much of the credit that should have gone to lineman laboring in obscurity there are two things I'd like to say about him.
First, the level of play he has for his age is mind-blowing. Look at other guys in his generation and where they are. Brees is younger and clearly washed up. Peyton Manning was a shell of himself when Denver won that last Super Bowl and younger than Brady is now. Eli Manning done before 40. Rivers just retired. Big Ben is going to have to take a pay cut and has also lost some ability. Brady was throwing deep balls almost as well as he was in the Randy Moss days, and he just doesn't make mistakes and you can't trick him because he's seen everything a defense can do. Tom Brady is the greatest "old" athlete I have ever seen. I can't imagine the training regimen he keeps up with to stay at that level.
Second, I really believed before the season that the Patriots knew what they were doing with Brady and that he must have become an average quarterback because Bill Belichick is the greatest NFL coach ever and he has that gift for ruthlessly discarding players once they aren't worth their paycheck. I was 100% WRONG. It was Brady who was carrying the Patriots. If I were Bob Kraft, well I'd be a billionaire with six Lombardi trophies. I'd also be wondering if I had matched Tampa's offer could I have kept Brady. Maybe Brady was going to leave no matter what, but in retrospect I wonder if Kraft would or should have overruled Belichick this once and just kept riding with Brady until Father Time does catch up with him.
Last edited by chris13; 02-08-2021 at 07:31 PM. Reason: spelling fixes
While I am not taking anything away from TB12 and Gronk, Tampa defensive coordinator Todd Bowles put together a masterful game plan that flummoxed the Chiefs all night long.
Did anyone bet that KC wouldn't score a single touchdown all game ? Me neither.
The media is going to sell a narrative, that's their job, but Brady is deserving of the narrative. I mean, dude has more SB wins than any franchise now. The offensive line did their job, which allowed Brady to do his job, which allowed the receivers to do their jobs. Brady had a hell of a game. 70+%, 3 TDs, 0 picks. That's great even when the line is clicking on all cylinders.
The Bucs, on both sides of the ball in virtually every position, played excellent ball.
Tampa is apparently covid free!
Great Postman quote btw. I feel like 'confusing ourselves to death' should be the title of a follow up.
Too much information and politicians just saying 3 contrary things at once to confuse things to save further to distance themselves.