Time To Admit. Tom Brady Is Pretty Okay
Deflating the Argument that the Superbowl MVP is Lucky
Tom Brady has just won his 7th Superbowl. He’s 7–3 in the biggest game of the year. In five of those wins, he was considered the MVP. These facts are not in dispute.
Yet, listen to enough sports talk shows, and you’ll hear Tom Brady disparaged.
Rob Parker, for instance, is a journalist who appears on Fox Sports regularly. Rob disagrees that Tom is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time.)
No. Rob calls him the LOAT. The Luckiest Of All Time.
He’s called Brady this several times before. In this most recent incident, it’s because he played against known football-scrub, Drew Brees. Brady was lucky because:
Brady didn’t beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.
It was a gift-wrapped retirement present from Saints QB Drew Brees.
So the mantra goes against Brady by all the detractors.
Another journalist, Matt Trowbridge, is on record as saying:
His first-ever playoff game was the Tuck Rule game. Atlanta had a sack and a holding penalty on back-to-back plays on what should have been a clinching field goal drive. Seattle threw an interception at the 1-yard line with 16 seconds left. Those helped Brady win three of his five Super Bowl titles.
Tom, for whatever reason, is not given credit. And yet, he keeps getting back to the Superbowl. More often than not, he wins them.
And he just did it again.
Look at the results.
Brady’s last year with the New England Patriots saw the team with a 12–4 record. The following year, without Brady, they fall to 7–9.
The Buccaneers before Brady? A 7–9 team. With Brady? Superbowl champs.
Tom Brady hasn’t always been the best player in the biggest game of the year. But, his now 5 MVP awards are an accomplishment nearly anybody this side of Michael Jordan has to admire.
Brady has been to the Superbowl ten times. As a player. We’re not counting all the other times he was a spectator or honored in some way.
The New England Patriots and The Pittsburgh Steelers are tied at 6 with the most Superbowl wins for a team. Tom just surpassed them both with 7.
Put this in perspective. Many people consider Lebron James the GOAT in basketball. (They’re wrong. The GOAT is MJ. Lebron is the Second Greatest Of All Time. The SGOAT.)
Lebron is in the conversation as GOAT partly on the strength of his 10 NBA Finals appearances, where he is 3–7. Flip those numbers, and you have Brady’s Superbowl record.
So, just wait. He will be congratulated. Regaled. Praised. And then the detractors will come. The ones that can’t stand excellence.
But, you don’t consistently win at this level because you are lucky. You do it because you prepare. You do it because you are good. You do it this many times, and you do it because you are the best.
At half, the game announcers said he set a Superbowl record for being the first quarterback to complete 80% of his passes (16–20) and throw 2 touchdowns in a half. He finished the game with 201 passing yards. Three touchdowns. One sack. And another Superbowl win.
In Scott Hughey’s first book on memory, he joked about the Patriots cheating and deflated footballs. He is glad that he didn’t mention Tom by name. He would like this opportunity to retract the joke officially.
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