Zomgee

Last night, those of us who turned on our TV’s and watched the big game were treated with a special delight. The greatest quarterback to ever play the game, Tom Brady, was there to put on a show and what a show it was. Throughout the stunning, unbelievable game we saw nothing but spectacular perfect passes and poise under pressure. Never faltering Brady orchestrated drive after drive of football that was closer to perfection than anyone in the game has ever managed to accomplish. The man is a brilliant passing genius and second to none. I can’t even begin to hail his praises as he single-handedly carried his team on his back, the entire season, to their undefeated record. Without Brady this season would have looked more like the Dolphin’s brush with futility. The way he engineered a last second comeback to once again pull the team up by his bootstraps was again one of the great moments in NFL history.

Pause a moment and allow the sarcasm to sink in a while before continuing for as you must have known by now – Brady did none of those things. In fact he looked down right pathetic in the face of pressure and was able to muster up no last second miracles to keep his team from the best worst record of all time, 18-1. You see for months sports writers and broadcasters have been mindlessly repeating things similar to what my first paragraph implies. They will state absolutes without taking a moment to step back and examine the bigger picture. The fact is, that while Tom Brady is a good quarterback it is his team that makes him appear great. The 2007 Patriots team is or was one of the greatest of all times. Brady had one of the best offensive lines in the game, 3 amazing receivers including but not limited to a guy in Randy Moss who could catch passes that weren’t well thrown, and a defense that has kept even good teams from consistently scoring.

You see Tom Brady wasn’t the reason for this team’s success, but he sure did contribute to its failure. Failing to receive near perfect pass protection like he had throughout the regular season, Brady showed nothing but a lack of ability in the pocket. Sure don’t worry all you commentators out there he still had “poise” but that was about it. Passes were flying right and left but many of them went nowhere near the intended receivers. Sure he did lead the team to two successful TD’s, one in the first half that I missed and really can’t comment on, and one in the second half where rather than showing us how amazing he was, he showed us how when given time in the pocket and given a single receiver who the Giants couldn’t seem to cover he was somehow perfect again. Now don’t get me wrong it was a good drive to go ahead 14-10, but all he did the whole time was dump the ball off to Wes Welker who was somehow wide open almost every play. Now does that show Tom Brady’s greatness or Welker’s? The Super Bowl commentators seemed to think it was Brady who was the second coming of Joe Montana when he hit a wide open Randy Moss in the endzone after his defender tripped and fell. He couldn’t hit a wide open Randy Moss in the endzone the play before when the defender hadn’t fallen so it would stand to reason that he managed to do it the second time around.

This will go down as perhaps the biggest upset in Super Bowl history and may be the greatest Super Bowl flop allowing the 2007 Patriots to eclipse the futility of the 1991-1994 Buffalo Bills. The Patriots had a great team, but in the end they couldn’t get it done and no matter how sweet that 16-0 season was, they will go away with nothing but bitterness in their mouths. You have to figure Bill Belichick wishes he would have gone for the field goal instead of going for a foolhardy 4th and 13 at the 31 yard line, but hey these things happen. Have to hand it to him for being so unsportsmanlike like and running off the field to cry at the end of the game – quality coach to be sure. In the end though none of this matters because the Super Bowl Champions are none other than the New York Giants…of course I trust you will always remember this as the season that the New England Patriots almost went undefeated.