So, Tom Brady is leaving New England, taking his rep and his six Super Bowl rings, to another NFL town. Will it be Tampa Bay or L.A.? Can you say Tom Brady of the Buccaneers? How about Tom Brady of the Chargers? We could know as soon as Wednesday afternoon when the NFL free agent market opens for business.
I thought TB12 would stay in Foxboro, where he came off the bench in 2001, led the Patriots to the Super Bowl championship and began rewriting the NFL record book. Where he grew up before our disbelieving eyes to become the greatest quarterback of all time.
I was wrong.
Why is Brady leaving? We don’t really know. He professed his love and appreciation of owner Bob Kraft, coach Bill Belichick, his many teammates and his legion of fans, and they did the same to him. But Brady really may have felt insulted by the incentive-laden contract the Patriots offered after his 2017 MVP season or the one-year deal they put on the table after the 2019 Super Bowl win. Or frustrated by Belichick’s failure last season to plug gaping holes on offense. Or tired of Boston traffic and our famous potholes. NBC Sports Boston reported that Brady and the Patriots never negotiated.
Please forgive me for not feeling distraught at Brady’s announcement via Instagram Tuesday morning. We have this COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, remember? It started in Wuhan, a Chinese city of about 11 million that few of us had heard of, and spread. Iran. Italy. France. Spain. Great Britain. The rest of Europe. The rest of the world, including the United States.
If you ignore our egocentric president and pay attention to experts in medicine and public health, to bold governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and even our own Gina Raimondo, we are in bigger trouble than we can imagine. We do not have enough hospital beds, doctors, nurses, technicians, ventilators, safety masks, protective suits and gloves to deal with this disease for which there is no vaccine and no cure.
That’s a little more serious than Tom Brady not having wide receivers and a tight end to throw to. Plus, the drama surrounding Brady has been going on for a while. Remember how he skipped optional off-season team workouts? How he structured his contract so he would become a free agent for the first time in his career? His frustration at his receivers’ inability to get open or catch the ball? How he put his Brookline estate on the market? How he offered vague answers to questions about his future? And how about that sneak preview of his Super Bowl commercial for Hulu? Was he going or coming?
Talking about Brady all fall and winter became exhausting. Even Boston radio talk jocks grew tired of speculating.
Rather than bemoan Brady’s departure, let’s celebrate his career here. We were so fortunate to have had him for two decades. Think about it. Eleven consecutive AFC East championships. Nine Super Bowl appearances. Six Super Bowl championships. For Brady, four Super Bowl MVPs, three NFL MVPs, 14 Pro Bowls, five All-Pro selections, two Offensive Player of the Year awards, one Comeback Player of the Year award.
Brady became an NFL icon, his uniform number 12 readily identifiable from Back Bay to L.A. Here in New England it tops 9 (Ted Williams), 8 (Carl Yastrzemski), 4 (Bobby Orr), and 33 (Larry Bird).
The thrills he and his teammates provided us are too numerous to list in anything less than a coffee table book or Ken Burns documentary. Start with the comeback from 25 points down in the third quarter of the 2017 Super Bowl against Atlanta that ended with a 34-28 victory in overtime and roll the highlight video from there.
We knew the day would come when Brady would not lead the Patriots into Gillette Stadium. If nothing else, he is getting old, 43 on August 3. We also knew that if he chose to end his career elsewhere, he would always be a Patriot.
