Tom Brady will have his legacy, regardless of DeflateGate
Thomas Edward Patrick Jr. was drafted in the sixth round, with the 199th-overall pick, of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. At the time, Tom Brady was an absolute nobody. He was the fourth-string quarterback at the end of training camp his rookie year, an age when Patriots owner Robert Kraft famously did not know his name.
In today’s climate, Brady would have been cut. Currently, there isn’t one team in the National Football League with four quarterbacks on the active roster. He would have been put through waivers and if unclaimed, perhaps landed on the practice squad. He was supposed to be a has-been, maybe even a never-was.
The Mo Lewis hit Drew Bledsoe, and a Hall-of-Fame career was born. Brady has been the starter in New England ever since and compiled the most stunning resume of any quarterback in NFL history. Despite playing most of his career with cast-off receivers and journeymen, Brady has won four Super Bowls, appeared in six, gone to nine conference championships and won the regular-season Most Valuable Player award in 2007 and 2010.
Additionally, Brady has been named a First-Team All-Pro twice, a Second-Team All-Pro once, a 10-time Pro Bowler, a Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, the Associated Press NFL Comeback Player of the Year, and a member of the NFL’s 2000 All-Decade team. Brady ranks fifth all-time in NFL history with 53,258 passing yards, trailing only Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino and Drew Brees.
In summation, Brady can be found guilty of knowingly playing in the 2014 AFC Championship game with under-inflated footballs. When the day comes for him to slip on his fitted gold jacket at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction, few will remember and none will care.
Brady is the embodiment of the American Dream. On a cold January day in 1982, Brady watched with his dad from the stands at Candlestick Park as his hometown San Francisco 49ers slayed the dragon and beat the Dallas Cowboys to go to Super Bowl XVI in a game best remembered for The Catch. Brady’s idol, Joe Montana, was in the infancy of what would become a storied career, capped with four Super Bowl titles and a Hall-of-Fame induction on the first ballot.
Funny how life works. The kid with all the hopes and dreams in the upper deck of Candlestick would one day get to live out his ambitions and be compared to his hero. As those who matured in the 1980’s talk about Montana, the young men and women who witnessed Brady in the 2000’s will speak of him in the same reverent tones.
When kids play in the backyard today and dream up the impossible scenario of being down six in the Super Bowl, needing a 2-minute drill, they don’t pretend to be Manning. They are Brady. They will always be Brady, because they will always win.
Legacies in sports aren’t about statistics. They are about how a player made you feel. With Manning, his greatness is burdened by his penchant for losing under the brightest lights. While Manning statistically is on another level compared to Brady, the memory of New England’s maestro will always be a fist-pumping exuberance which could not be contained following a winning score.
Not a soul can tell you how many yards Montana threw for. Yet, they can tell you what it felt like to watch Old Joe buckle his chinstrap late in the fourth quarter, all while every fan reached for their imaginary seat belt. Montana threw for less yardage than Vinny Testaverde, Drew Bledsoe and Kerry Collins. It doesn’t matter.
In the final analysis, Brady’s suspension – regardless of its eventual length – will be a mere footnote in a career highlighted by indelible moments. The under-inflation of an oblong pigskin with an odorless, invisible gas will fade into oblivion.
All that will remain are the memories of how he made you feel. In that regard, Brady is untouchable.