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- Dec 26, 2012
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I was thinking about this today. I moved to LA from New England about 5 years ago. Seeing how the city reacted to Kobe’s death was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen. His death effectively brought the city to a standstill and at least for the next couple of weeks it was Kobe, Kobe, Kobe everywhere. Listening to LA sports radio in the days after, it was caller after caller bawling and discussing the importance of Kobe to this city. I was talking to my friend who is an all-LA sports fan (mind you, I despise every one of the teams here), about if there’s any other player living who had a similar connection to a city and whose passing would bring about a similar reaction. Our only answer that we could come up with was Tom Brady.
Now, no matter how much we love the guy and appreciate what he’s done, he’ll never have that same connection to the region like Kobe Bryant did with Los Angeles. Kobe will always be a Laker, but Brady won’t always be a Patriot. Brady threw it all away, and to what end? To be able to have fun for a year or two at the age of 42? Now, Brady doesn’t owe us anything; he’s delivered more than anyone else, but I wonder if in a couple years he looks back and wonders: was it worth it?
Bradys status in the New England region won’t change. Yeah the initial shock of him leaving stung but as time moves on that will evaporate. The closest situation to this would be Montana going to kc in 93. Has that hurt his status in the Bay Area after retirement? No, he’s still considered a hero/legend over there.
TB loves the game and has made it clear he wants to play as long as possible. He’s earned that right. Now both sides have taken the high road but it’s pretty clear BB was only willing to commit to TB on a year to year basis after the 2018 season. And I don’t blame him as TB is already past the point of when QBs are done. It’s obvious the Bucs wanted TB more with their multiyear contract. They guaranteed he would be playing till he was done with his age 44 season. TB has earned the right to go out on his terms.