duncan228
02-03-2008, 09:55 AM
My local paper's coverage.
http://www.ocregister.com/sports/brady-patriots-bowl-1972662-super-nfl
Smith column: Is Tom Brady too perfect?
Super Bowl XLII: The New England Patriots will try for a perfection today against the New York Giants, but their quarterback already might have attained it.
MARCIA C. SMITH
Register columnist
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- You can't break this guy. You can't rattle him, make him sweat Stetson, mug him for his Movado or knock him in the cleft chin without five Hummer-sized men trying to shatter your pelvis first.
At 30, New England Patriots All-Pro quarterback Tom Brady has everything: this season's NFL MVP award, four Pro Bowl selections, a page of NFL records, a historic 18-0 season, GQ-cover sex appeal, Esquire's 2007 title as “Best Dressed Man in the World,” a $33 million a year Brazilian supermodel girlfriend, three Super Bowl rings — and quite possibly a fourth today if the Patriots defeat the New York Giants here in Super Bowl XLII.
Women — hotties, mostly -— lust after him. Men crush on him. Kids want to grow up to be him. NFL analysts are holding out their anvils and chisels, waiting to add his handsome head to the Mount Rushmore of signal-callers alongside Montana, Elway, Marino and Bradshaw.
Brady, assuming his best awshucks posture when asked about being among the NFL's all-time elite quarterbacks, said: “Those guys, as far as I'm concerned, are in a league of their own. I don't think I'm a part of it. This is my eighth season. I have so much football to play.”
Forgive me for sounding like a hater — or worse, a Giants fan — but no figure in modern sports has been this lucky, this cool, this glamorous, this successful, this perfect and this protected. Doesn't it all just make you sick?
Some experts call him “the greatest quarterback of our generation” — an easy conclusion considering the eighth-year pro is making his fourth Super Bowl appearance in seven years and is coming off a 2007 All-Pro season of completing 68.9 percent of this passes for 4,806 yards, an NFL-record 50 touchdowns and just eight interceptions.
But let's remember that Brady's supposed best traits are “making the reads under pressure on the defense,” Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said, and “accurate passing,” according to Brady's boyhood idol, Joe Montana.
Hmmm, reading the defense. Weren't the Patriots busted for stealing the defensive play-calling signals from, of all teams, the lowly New York Jets in Spygate? Does anybody really believe that's the only time Patriots cheated? Or was it the only time they got caught?
Hmmm, accuracy. That's expected from most quarterbacks when they have the luxury, Montana explained, “of a great line to give him great protection in the pocket and the time — he has got like four seconds — to throw.”
Is he more legendary or lucky to be in the position to be great? What if Dan Marino, who lost the only Super Bowl he ever made, had Brady's setup?
Brady fans think he's The Man Who Can Do No Wrong. He can wear a 5 o'clock shadow and an untucked $200 T-shirt and not get called “sloppy.” He can drop an insult with a half-smile and not get labeled “arrogant.”
He can have a child out of wedlock with starlet Bridget Moynahan, bring flowers to Gisele Bundchen and still get a Super Bowl media day marriage proposal from TV Azteca (Mexico City) reporter in the wedding dress.
If an NBA player had an illegitimate child, we would call him a deadbeat. When former USC quarterback Matt Leinart didn't marry his baby's mother, we cringed a bit and chalked it up to modern times. But Brady, he could probably still run for Father of the Year and win.
He's the golden playboy, America's quarterback in the famous red, white and blue No. 12 uniform that rarely gets wrinkled or stained — unless it's by champagne.
And he has cast a spell on everyone, with spirals, victories, the allure of perfection, the grandeur of greatness, the movie-idol looks, the B-52 bomber-steel blue eyes, the piano key-white teeth, the politician's comportment, everything.
How can you not like him?
Even his backup, the player who gets like five repetitions a week and might be lucky enough to kneel on the ball today if Brady is feeling charitable, can't say a bad thing about No. 12.
When Patriots backup Matt Cassel saw video of Brady walking through Manhattan with the infamous boot on his turned ankle, his first thought was not Oh no! or I might get to play! but “He was really well-dressed,” Cassel said.
One thing nobody can debate is that this is Brady whom the sports world never coming. He's our biggest superstar, America's version of the Britain's David Beckham.
Brady was the quarterback Lloyd Carr and the Michigan Wolverines overlooked and NFL teams missed 198 times over until the Patriots selected him in 2000, in the sixth round, 199th overall.
Nobody knew that Brady, the quarterback who spelunked his way up the depth chart at Michigan would be building the impossible: a dynasty for the Patriots, a middle-tier team a decade ago, in today's era of salary caps and free agency.
Back in college, quarterback Drew Henson was the bigger Wolverine. Now Henson is out of football now, while Brady, the man with it all, is getting ready to play for history.
Sunday night, he could walk off the field at University of Phoenix Stadium with confetti in his hair, a fourth Super Bowl title, the NFL's first perfect 19-0 season, a third Super Bowl MVP Award and the keys to a 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.
Why not? This is Tom Brady. Nobody has stopped him yet.
http://www.ocregister.com/sports/brady-patriots-bowl-1972662-super-nfl
Smith column: Is Tom Brady too perfect?
Super Bowl XLII: The New England Patriots will try for a perfection today against the New York Giants, but their quarterback already might have attained it.
MARCIA C. SMITH
Register columnist
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- You can't break this guy. You can't rattle him, make him sweat Stetson, mug him for his Movado or knock him in the cleft chin without five Hummer-sized men trying to shatter your pelvis first.
At 30, New England Patriots All-Pro quarterback Tom Brady has everything: this season's NFL MVP award, four Pro Bowl selections, a page of NFL records, a historic 18-0 season, GQ-cover sex appeal, Esquire's 2007 title as “Best Dressed Man in the World,” a $33 million a year Brazilian supermodel girlfriend, three Super Bowl rings — and quite possibly a fourth today if the Patriots defeat the New York Giants here in Super Bowl XLII.
Women — hotties, mostly -— lust after him. Men crush on him. Kids want to grow up to be him. NFL analysts are holding out their anvils and chisels, waiting to add his handsome head to the Mount Rushmore of signal-callers alongside Montana, Elway, Marino and Bradshaw.
Brady, assuming his best awshucks posture when asked about being among the NFL's all-time elite quarterbacks, said: “Those guys, as far as I'm concerned, are in a league of their own. I don't think I'm a part of it. This is my eighth season. I have so much football to play.”
Forgive me for sounding like a hater — or worse, a Giants fan — but no figure in modern sports has been this lucky, this cool, this glamorous, this successful, this perfect and this protected. Doesn't it all just make you sick?
Some experts call him “the greatest quarterback of our generation” — an easy conclusion considering the eighth-year pro is making his fourth Super Bowl appearance in seven years and is coming off a 2007 All-Pro season of completing 68.9 percent of this passes for 4,806 yards, an NFL-record 50 touchdowns and just eight interceptions.
But let's remember that Brady's supposed best traits are “making the reads under pressure on the defense,” Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said, and “accurate passing,” according to Brady's boyhood idol, Joe Montana.
Hmmm, reading the defense. Weren't the Patriots busted for stealing the defensive play-calling signals from, of all teams, the lowly New York Jets in Spygate? Does anybody really believe that's the only time Patriots cheated? Or was it the only time they got caught?
Hmmm, accuracy. That's expected from most quarterbacks when they have the luxury, Montana explained, “of a great line to give him great protection in the pocket and the time — he has got like four seconds — to throw.”
Is he more legendary or lucky to be in the position to be great? What if Dan Marino, who lost the only Super Bowl he ever made, had Brady's setup?
Brady fans think he's The Man Who Can Do No Wrong. He can wear a 5 o'clock shadow and an untucked $200 T-shirt and not get called “sloppy.” He can drop an insult with a half-smile and not get labeled “arrogant.”
He can have a child out of wedlock with starlet Bridget Moynahan, bring flowers to Gisele Bundchen and still get a Super Bowl media day marriage proposal from TV Azteca (Mexico City) reporter in the wedding dress.
If an NBA player had an illegitimate child, we would call him a deadbeat. When former USC quarterback Matt Leinart didn't marry his baby's mother, we cringed a bit and chalked it up to modern times. But Brady, he could probably still run for Father of the Year and win.
He's the golden playboy, America's quarterback in the famous red, white and blue No. 12 uniform that rarely gets wrinkled or stained — unless it's by champagne.
And he has cast a spell on everyone, with spirals, victories, the allure of perfection, the grandeur of greatness, the movie-idol looks, the B-52 bomber-steel blue eyes, the piano key-white teeth, the politician's comportment, everything.
How can you not like him?
Even his backup, the player who gets like five repetitions a week and might be lucky enough to kneel on the ball today if Brady is feeling charitable, can't say a bad thing about No. 12.
When Patriots backup Matt Cassel saw video of Brady walking through Manhattan with the infamous boot on his turned ankle, his first thought was not Oh no! or I might get to play! but “He was really well-dressed,” Cassel said.
One thing nobody can debate is that this is Brady whom the sports world never coming. He's our biggest superstar, America's version of the Britain's David Beckham.
Brady was the quarterback Lloyd Carr and the Michigan Wolverines overlooked and NFL teams missed 198 times over until the Patriots selected him in 2000, in the sixth round, 199th overall.
Nobody knew that Brady, the quarterback who spelunked his way up the depth chart at Michigan would be building the impossible: a dynasty for the Patriots, a middle-tier team a decade ago, in today's era of salary caps and free agency.
Back in college, quarterback Drew Henson was the bigger Wolverine. Now Henson is out of football now, while Brady, the man with it all, is getting ready to play for history.
Sunday night, he could walk off the field at University of Phoenix Stadium with confetti in his hair, a fourth Super Bowl title, the NFL's first perfect 19-0 season, a third Super Bowl MVP Award and the keys to a 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.
Why not? This is Tom Brady. Nobody has stopped him yet.