I thought Belichick was a mastermind defensive coach in the 80s with the Giants, because the Bills' K-Gun offense was nearly impossible to stop. He shut them down.
When he came to new England and aided our turnaround to the Super Bowl in '96 and then helped resurrect the Jets with Parcells, I badly wanted him to be our coach.
Shutting the Rams Greatest show on Turf in 2001 cemented it for me.
For Brady, it was pretty early in his career as well. It was the 2003 AFCCG and the 2003 SB. Although Brady threw 2 picks against Carolina, he stood in against massive pressure, completed high degree of difficulty passes while the team was behind, locked on with Deion Branch, and put on one of the greatest passing performances of the ages (it was top 2 Super Bowl passing yards all-time at the time).
So, 2001 for Belichick (given his already incredible track record) and 2003 for Brady (just because we haven't really seen a performance like that from a QB since outside of Foles in 2017 [sad face]). Although you can say Foles' performance shows how fluky it can be, I think Brady's performance speaks for itself on that day in 2003 since no other winning QB than Foles has surpassed Brady's passing yards since 2003.
When people denigrate young Brady as a sidenote to Vinatieri's clutch kicking (Adam actually missed 2 FGs that day), they maybe forget that only one QB in the last 20 years has surpassed Brady's 2003 performance.
