I wonder about that. Quite frankly I think he's a bit further down the "using skill, intelligence and sheer hard work to cover for his age" trail than some of the rest of you seem to believe. I think it's clear that he's already using the reserves of youthful energy that you guys seem to think he has saved back. I think he's having to burn the candle at both ends to maintain his current level of play, and that's only going to get harder for him as the years push by.
I wouldn't be surprised if it all started catching up to him as early as this year. Heck there's an argument to be made that he barely escaped the cliff in the Superbowl itself but found a way to bounce back at the last possible moment.
BTW I've mentioned this before but -- decline doesn't tend to be a uniform thing, you used to be able to do X now you can do X-1. Those of us who watch baseball remember Curt Schilling and the way it ended for him, yes the final blow came because of injury as his shoulder just gave out on him but for years before that he had games where he was vintage Schilling, with overpowering stuff and superb command, and more and more days where it was just the command, until the 2007 World Serie he was winning a World Series game on nothing but guts, Cortisone, and memories of the pitcher he used to be.
Schilling's strange personality and off-putting politics aside, I think there's a good analogy here. He held his own very well in his own battle with Father Time. Schill worked his butt off trying to make the most of the talent he had left, just like we expected Brady to, and he succeeded, Schilling was a playoff monster right to the end, but it led to more and more inconsistency in his play as he went along, days he could pump it in at 94, days when the clock topped at 91 and he had to live on the split, until finally he was getting by on an 89mph fastball and pure courage.
As Brady declines I don't expect there to just simply be things he can't do. I expect there to be days of vintage Brady and days where he has to get by on pure guile and intelligence because that's all he'll have going for him. At first he'll be able to push back, mask his decline to a certain extent, and have more good days simply by working out harder, making good lifestyle decisions, and he'll be able to have moments of vintage form and be able to turn on the jets in clutch moments, quite frankly I think that's the Tom Brady we've seen over the last 3 years. I think he's already doing that stuff to hide his physical decline. That's what I mean when I say I think he's already burnt through the reserves of energy you guys seem to think he still has open to him.
There is going to come a point where the hard work can't mask the growing inconsistency, and games are going to start getting away from Brady. Not all of them, but more and more of them. Eventually those are going to be playoff games as the ability to take it to that top gear of his gets harder and harder for him to find. I'm personally afraid we're probably further down that road than some folks want to admit. This Superbowl almost got away from him before he was able to find his A game. How much longer until the A game just can't be found?
