It was certainly a big blunder, but an understandable one based on past history. BEFORE Tom Brady won his Superbowl at age 43 with Tampa Bay, the oldest QBs to win a superbowl are shown in the table below. When one takes out Brady's 2019 (at 41) and 2017 (at 39) Superbowls, the oldest are: Peyton Manning at 39 (and he really was a shell of himself in that 2016 Superbowl) and Earl Morrall and John Elway at age 38. Brady had already won one at 39 and another at 41 (already completely unprecedented), so it was perfectly reasonable for BB to expect Brady's performance to fall off a cliff. As it turns out, Brady is the ultimate outlier, winning another Superbowl at 43 and still playing at a top level at 44, it is simply amazing. So BB
did make a big blunder, but it was a completely reasonable one and is only because Brady simply does not seem to follow the normal laws of decreased performance for aging QBs, at least not yet.
Tom Brady | 41 | Patriots | 2019 (53) |
Peyton Manning | 39 | Broncos | 2016 (50) |
Tom Brady | 39 | Patriots | 2017 (51) |
Earl Morrall | 38 | Dolphins | 1973 (7) |
John Elway | 38 | Broncos | 1999 (33) |
Johnny Unitas | 37 | Colts | 1971 (5) |