Anyway, to the game. Over the next few days, you’ll see plenty of takes, and the term “GOAT”, which needs to be erased from our vernacular yesterday. I don’t know if Brady is the greatest. With an unimaginable seven rings and a record five Super Bowl MVPs, he’s the most decorated, that’s for sure. It’s not a debate that can ever end.
What I do find, is that myself and others who are fatigued of it all seem to keep making excuses for why he wins. Just this year: Oh, his first opponent was the worst playoff team of all-time. Drew Brees is clinically dead. Something always happens to the Packers. The Chiefs’ offensive line was a mess.
And yet it’s every year the anyone-but-Tom crowd has to come up with these reasons or explanations or excuses. It’s Belichick (guess that one might not ring as true anymore). It’s the system. It’s the refs. Whatever.
But after seven of these, and 10 trips overall, there has to be something we can’t quantify. It is said that great teams, great players, are up on the scoreboard before the teams take the field/court/ice. There’s just some block their opponents have before the clock starts. You know who’s on the other side, you know the challenge, and it’s hard to picture yourself or your team overcoming it because so few before have. Maybe Brady’s teams are up 10-0 before the game even starts.
That can apply to the refs. All great players and teams seem to get the calls, because they’re in position to. Glavine and Maddux would get to pitch to an eight-foot wide strike zone. Michael Jordan shoved Bryon Russell to Park City for his iconic shot. Alex Ferguson’s United always got just enough injury time to score. It’s just the way it goes. Maybe they have just that little more extra leeway in a ref’s mind, something even the official can’t pick up themselves. But only the select few get there.
There’s nothing about Brady that says the best, other than the record, which admittedly is an asinine statement. Never had the strongest arm, couldn’t move all that well. Maybe his brain is the best, but that’s hard to judge, really. And yet things keep falling his way, as most see it. But after this long and this many times, it’s not simply falling. There’s something there that we can’t label, can’t identify, and so all we’re left with is to fill the vacuum with various, tired arguments., whatever side you’re on.
I’ll just leave it at something I’ll never know.