Had someone told you this time last year that 365 days later, Tom Brady would swing through MetLife for the final time, would you have batted an eye? He'd gallop through like Paul Revere, in his Patriots gear, to grab one last win at the Meadowlands, his home away from home.
But, you probably wouldn’t have thought it would be a game against the Giants, and surely you didn't picture Tom Brady in Buccaneers garb. No reason to leave the confetti-strewn streets of Boston for the oppressive heat and hot mess that is Tampa Bay, right?
Yet, here we are. The 2-5 Pats are collapsing, the 1-6 Giants have collapsed, and Brady has tweaked Tampa Bay into Tompa Bay - a 5-2 squad and certified Super Bowl contender. It nudges the needle in Brady's direction, and away from Bill Belichick, as the winner of this football divorce, and long-debated “chicken or the egg” scenario as to whom was the catalyst, after 20 years of bliss and fidelity.
But even if you think the coach was (and is) more important than the quarterback, this is the perfect time to salute the GOAT at our marginal expense. This is one of those harmless moments in a lost local NFL season when applauding the enemy is aesthetically agreeable.
Last year, Eli Manning got one last game under center, a moment perfectly scripted by the football lords, against the woeful team from Washington. Eli got one more win, and, more importantly, a proper curtain call. Similarly, this is our best chance to quietly admire Brady up close - or as close as we can get during a pandemic - in a stand-alone game on Monday night.
And who would have known that Brady, for all his undisputed greatness, would be this good at age 43? On a new team, in a new system, Brady can boast some serious stats, including 15 touchdown passes and one interception over his last five games. He's ranked in the Top 5 in passer rating (102.7), and only Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers have a better TD-to-INT ratio than TB12’s 18-to-4 mark.
Brady's only loss since opening day was by one point on the road, to the Bears, in a rare moment of public confusion: the game in which he forgot it was fourth down with precious few moments left in the fourth quarter.
After that game, just three weeks ago, Brady was blasted as a battered old man who was yelling at younger players because he couldn't relate to them, flashing signs of football dementia by forgetting the down and distance while ordering a bunch of Millennials to get off his lawn. Head coach Bruce Arians was forced to provide semantic subterfuge for this drooling, geriatric legend, who should have retired right after that pick-six he tossed in the playoffs.
Funny how many times we've left Brady for dead, only to have him shove it down our collective throats. We dismissed him after a September beating in 2014 against the Chiefs. We queued up the montages for his exit when he was down 28-3 in the Super Bowl in 2017. And surely he would never leave the comfort of New England to melt in the baking heat of Florida, where more folks go to retire than prosper; after all, the Buccaneers haven't been to the playoffs since 2007, and have been in just three NFC title games and one Super Bowl since their inception in 1976.
There will be career eulogies later, after he retires first or second in all salient stats. But for now, in this vital election year, it’s time to cast our ballot for Tom Brady as the clear GOAT: a man who won six Super Bowls, may take the forlorn Buccaneers to their second in 44 years, and could be saving his best act for last, fittingly, just before his 44th birthday. All of it after we gave up on him, again.
Follow Jason Keidel on Twitter: @JasonKeidel
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