Much has been made of Tom Brady’s second retirement. I tolerated Tom, his coach, and the Pats’ owner for many years because I truly believe that there’s no I in team, and none of those bozos could make a whole lot of difference! In other words, their success and Brady’s stemmed from having a good team backing up Brady. Sure, Tom Terrific was good, and stats-wise he might even be the GOAT, but he was blessed with a lot of good teams with many star players who backed him up.
If you need more proof of that, the Buccaneers were terrible this last season and barely eked out a playoff spot with more losses than wins. The so-called GOAT tried to carry the entire team (to his credit, I suppose) and failed. The Buccaneers’ previous super bowl win with Tom only occurred because he could throw to many good targets, there were also good runners to balance the offense, and the defense, while never great, was acceptable. Non-Super Bowl seasons with the Pats shared similar results as last season with the Buccaneers. Tom played in the Super Bowl ten times but won only seven—“only” because the three teams when his teams lost weren’t as good as the other seven. Tom didn’t change; the teams changed. A quarterback has to be a good team leader—all that that implies—but the key words there are “good team.” Without a good team backing him up, even a GOAT can’t win.
There are plenty of good QBs in the NFL, many better than lead-footed Brady who can’t scramble and lives off protection by a good offensive line. Their successes, or lack thereof, depends on their teams, as Brady showed in spades at Tampa Bay last season. Does that mean that MAGA-maniac Tom deserves that cushy deal with Fox? I’ll only state that it’s appropriate: Fox is the MAGA-maniacal network, home to Carlson, Hannity, and a host of other fascists, so Tom Not-So Terriffic will certainly feel at home there. As for that one-day contract with the Pats, that just reinforces the coach and owner’s own MAGA credentials. The Pats’ season records have shown that they’re basically irrelevant because the team is inferior to those previous winning teams. Brady was just lucky to have those good teams. That might be true when he becomes an announcer as well.