TOM “THE GOAT” BRADY

If you don’t follow sports than you probably haven’t heard the term “GOAT” used very often unless someone is talking about the animal. Well I hate to disappoint but this isn’t an editorial about animals, it’s about how Tom Brady is the greatest of all time a.k.a the “GOAT.” If you don’t know who Tom Brady is, well then you need to come out from under the rock you’ve been living in for the last 15 years. Brady is the starting QB for the New England Patriots, but he hasn’t always been the great QB he is now. Brady went to the University of Michigan and started his college career as the fifth string. He struggled and considered transferring but he stuck with it. After years of competition and uncertainty, Brady finally captured the starting job in the middle of his redshirt-senior year. He led the Wolverines to a Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama and dubbed the nickname “The Comeback Kid.” Even with a fantastic senior year and a Sugar Bowl victory, Brady didn’t get any recognition from NFL Scouts.

In 2011 the “NFL Network” did a special on Brady called “The Brady 6” where they talked about all six of the QB’s who were drafted ahead of Brady. Mel Kiper Jr, a NFL draft expert, is quoted in the special saying “You look at his vertical jump and his 40-yard dash time and you didn’t see anything special. Based off the combine we have looked at 576 QB’s and he was number 576.” After not getting any recognition from the draft scouts Tom Brady fell all the way down to the sixth round and ended up being the last pick of the round, to the New England Patriots. The Patriots already had a, what they thought at the time, franchise QB in Drew Bledsoe. Bill Belichick, coach of the Patriots, even said in “The Brady 6”, “We really didn’t need another QB on the roster so, essentially, he was a wasted roster spot because we didn’t want to risk letting him go.” Well, Belichick made the exact right call because, little to his knowledge, he just kept the future greatest quarterback to ever play on the roster.

Brady came into New England as a fourth stringer but by the middle of his rookie year he was the backup to Drew Bledsoe. Brady didn’t play his rookie year but did see some action in the preseason of his second year and looked to be much improved. Belichick on “The Brady 6” said, “In all honesty, Brady had a much better preseason than Bledsoe.” Obviously, Bledsoe still had the starting job but had Brady breathing down the back of his neck. In week two of the 2001 season, Brady’s second year, Bledsoe got hit by linebacker Mo Lewis and suffered a sheared blood vessel in his chest. With this injury, Bledsoe was out for the rest of the year and forced Tom Brady into the starting role. Brady took control of the offense and never looked back. He led the Patriots to their third Super Bowl in franchise history and won it. Giving the Patriots their first Super Bowl and making him the definitive future of the organization. Brady became the starting QB and led the Patriots to two more Super Bowl victories in 4 years, giving the Patriots the title of a dynasty.

Brady and the Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2004 and then went through a sort of drought. In ten years, the Patriots went to two more Super Bowls but lost them both to the New York Giants. This made people doubt if Brady was really as great as everyone made him out to be. Finally, in 2014 he won his fourth Super Bowl ring vs. the Seattle Seahawks. What, at the time, seemed like the greatest Super Bowl ever played. This ring STILL didn’t silence his haters as they still refused to say he was the GOAT QB in NFL history. Brady has had two scandals of cheating circle around him in his career, “spygate” and “deflategate.” “Deflategate” was the most recent one and eventually led to Brady having to serve a four game suspension at the beginning of this season. Brady just let this suspension fuel him as he went 11-1 in the regular season after his suspension, giving the Patriots a 14-2 record and the first seed in the playoffs. Brady kept this fire burning and led the Patriots to Super Bowl 51 to face the high powered Falcons. I wrote an article about Super Bowl 51 and the result so go ahead and check that out to get the whole rundown. Now, back to Brady. Brady led the Patriots on a 25 point comeback on the Falcons in Super Bowl 51 and got his fifth ring and second in three years. Brady ended the game with a stat line of 43 of 62 passing with 466 yards, two TD passes, and one interception. At 39 this stat line is absolutely insane. 466 passing yards is a Super Bowl record by a mile. You just can’t deny this man’s greatness anymore. He now holds so many postseason records it is astounding. He is the only QB in NFL history with five Super Bowl rings and he still has a lot left in his tank. Just going off of his career, his stats, and his hardware, compared to any other QB of all time, he is the greatest. It doesn’t matter who you try to put ahead of him, he is better. Joe Montana? Nope. Dan Marino? Try again. Peyton Manning? Yeah miss me with that one. Tom Brady is the GOAT, end of discussion, period, case closed.