"Back in those days, Brady was unmarried, with no kids or obligations. And he spent all of his time on football. Miller used to laugh at the fact that Brady didn't know much about politics or just about anything else going on in the world outside the football offices back then. He didn't have time. His impromptu quarterback meetings over breakfast on game days were like lightning rounds on quiz shows. He'd have his backups run him through a fire drill of questions and possible scenarios."
I can't start threads yet (occasional poster, LONG TIME member and reader), but I wanted to draw attention to a recent ESPN piece (Mike Reiss has a link on his blog) about Brady's back ups, and I figure this is an appropriate thread. THe above quote is regarding Brady in 2004.
I have been talking to my brother about a general feeling we both feel. Brady, to us, is the greatest quarterback of all time (I'm 29, a physician here in Boston, and have been a fan of the NFL since I was 8 years old, just FYI).
As a person with a busy career, and someone who is overall single, I desire a strong work-life balance. I think it's only natural that as someone gets older, their priorities change. They get married, have kids, and need for that work-life balance becomes ever more important.
Tom Brady has been at that point for a the last few years, and STILL has maintained FANTASTIC statistics. He tears apart defenses. He spreads the ball around. He is still feared. He is still one of the best (though in conversations amongst the so-called pundits, the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and even Eli Manning now get lumped into his class, and I f------- HATE that).
My brother played wide-receiver in college and he says the relationship the freshmen receivers had with their qb was CRUCIAL. Not just practice field and drills. But the best receivers on his team were the ones hanging out with the qb for dinner, playing video games in the dorm rooms until 1AM, hitting a local bar for beers, etc. I read before that Brady used to be the one hanging out with the receivers back in 2003-2004, going to bars, going to their houses, etc.
I can only speculate, but now that Brady is older, married, and has children, I'm sure he wants to spend weekends with them and get home from work as soon as possible. My whole point in this long-ass post is that, wait for it, I don't see that same KILLER on the field that I used to back in 2004. It's a different kind of fire that comes from a veteran, seasoned. While he could probably CARRY the entire team back in 2005 and 2006, I don't think he can do that anymore. If we want a superbowl, the pats have to give him a solid cast, a la Elway in the late 90s.
That little bit of extra work mentioned in the above quote about Brady is probably not done anymore, and may not even be necessary for HIM. BUT, I'm SURE it might make the team just slightly better, just slightly better enough to get a superbowl. He's still great, and it's great to see the FIRE in him in the sound fx clip, but I still for some reason feel that it's NOT the same as in 2003-2006.
