“My husband cannot f— throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.”
One of the most memorable lines in Patriots history was delivered by an exhausted Gisele Bundchen in a hotel lobby just hours after Super Bowl XLVI. In response to hoards of rowdy Giants fans, Gisele defended her husband. Tom Brady had come up short against the Giants again, and some dropped passes were to blame. Most notably, Wes Welker’s dropped pass.
With the Patriots leading 17-15 late in the fourth quarter, Brady hurled the ball deep towards Welker, who was wide open down the field. If Welker caught the pass, the Patriots would’ve been inside the red zone with less than four minutes remaining. The Super Bowl was there for the taking.
Instead, the ball went inside a leaping Welker’s hands, and hit the turf. Brady followed with an incomplete pass on third down, giving the Giants plenty of time to get into field goal range and win. That’s exactly what happened, thanks to another miraculous late drive from Eli Manning. To quote Yogi Berra, it was deja vu all over again.
The following day — and frankly, for the following years — Gisele’s pointed remarks were viewed as a diss towards Welker. In the latest episode of “Man in the Arena,” Gisele corrects the record.
In fact, “No Guarantees,” serves as Brady’s ultimate kiss to his first love — with all due respect to Gisele, Jules and Gronk.
“There was nobody who could define what being a great teammate was, what doing the right thing was, like Wes,” Brady said. “Wes had the most amazing career for the Patriots, but we didn’t win the Super Bowls at those times. To me, that doesn’t take away from what his amazing career was, and what his contributions were. If I’m starting a team to go to battle with, Wes Welker is in that starting lineup.”
For seven seasons, Welker was the best slot receiver in the game, averaging 112 receptions and 1,243 yards per season with the Patriots. Julian Edelman may have the championship glory, but statistically speaking, Welker was Brady’s top slot guy.
Welker’s football story carries similarities to Brady’s. Undrafted out of college, he worked his way onto the Dolphins in 2004, where he made an immediate impact as a kick returner. Three years later, the Patriots acquired Welker as their inside compliment to Randy Moss.
At the start of the episode, Welker stresses how work supersedes natural skill. His lines could’ve been lifted directly from a TB12 manual. “You sit there and you think, ‘All these guys are freak athletes. It’s just like, I could never compete with that guy,’” Welker said. “And then you just keeping on working at it. Keep on doing what you do in a routine every single day. All of a sudden, you surpass the freak, because he didn’t want to work.”
Brady says they gelled instantly.
“We’re like partners in crime. That’s my boy,” Brady said. “We’re there talking about football every night. He’s coming over my house for dinner, we’re talking about football.” (Presumably, they saved their non-football chatter for their annual bro trips to the Kentucky Derby.)
Fully in-sync, Brady and Welker connected on throws like the dropped pass in Super Bowl XLVI dozens of times. While Welker should’ve caught the ball, it was also won’t Brady’s best throw. He takes responsibility for the mishap.
“I had to spin him around and make it a tough catch on him. Obviously wish I had just stuck it on him,” Brady said.
Gisele, who said she originally thought her comments were “mild,” felt “heartbroken” they were turned on Welker.
Though the dropped pass hasn’t defined Welker’s career, it’s dominated his mind. “Finally to get to the moment that I had prepared for, to make plays in critical situations over and over and over again. And not come through? I wads just like, ‘Why?,’” Welker said. “I would rather not have any of the other ones, and just have that one.”
Welker may not have a Super Bowl ring, but he’ll always Brady’s love. That’s not a bad consolation prize.