You can never kill the great villains. Every time you think they’re dead, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger just spring back to life. When you’ve got Hannibal Lecter locked in a cage and you think it’s over, all of a sudden he’s ripping out your throat.
Tom Brady never should have been a villain. He should be a hero, the NFL equivalent of Jay-Z, an American Dream narrative to cherish, the story of a man who made himself from nothing and rose through the ranks to glory.
He’s competitive, humble and selfless. He’s also really good at football.
Winning Super Bowls and having a Brazilian supermodel wife makes you easy to loathe though – Brady has to be the most envied athlete in America – no matter how wholesome your personality might be. People look for every reason to hate Brady but none are compelling. You can call him a cheat for Deflate Gate, but in doing so you’d just be shedding light on your own ignorance or shadow complexes.
The Wells Report was comical in its vague assertions (“more probable than not”) and a scientific consensus has formed that effectively exonerates Brady and the Patriots from any wrongdoing.
The Deflate Gate truthers have been limited to the NFL and those with weird personal grievances against Brady. Neither institution holds much weight.
And yet, Tom Brady is unquestionably a villain. The Patriots are the most hated team in the league and Bill Belichick, with his cold, condescending presence, is the game’s most easily despicable coach. By osmosis, as New England’s best player, Brady has become one of the sport’s great villains.
It’s unfair, but at the same it’s fitting. Because like all great villains, whenever you think Tom Brady is dead, that’s the precise moment where he becomes so frighteningly alive.
I watched the AFC Championship game in a hostel in Southern Patagonia, Argentina, with a group of Americans who had varying degrees of interest in the game. Two of them, guys from New York and Chicago, were watching the game out of obligation – they were American and the playoffs were on TV, so it goes. The other guy was from Colorado though, a die-hard Broncos fan who was sweating out every play as though the season depended on it – which, in his defence, it probably did.
Through three quarters, almost everything went Denver’s way. In an omen which proved to be decisive, Stephen Gostkowski missed his first extra point in approximately a million attempts, setting the game’s uneven tone early. Peyton Manning looked sharp in the first quarter, hardly vintage Peyton but solid enough to put points on the board. His two touchdowns, the second an absolute pearler, went to Owen Daniels, who spent the afternoon looking like the tight end from New England.
The Denver defence was ferocious in one of the most dominant displays on that side of the ball you’ll ever see. They were relentless, in Brady’s face all day, and eventually, inevitably, found their way into his head too. Managing to get into Tom Brady’s head is the final frontier for an NFL defence, and it’s one that the Broncos crossed, generating pressure all day without having to blitz. Von Miller and Demarcus Ware sentenced Sebastian Vollmer and the New England offensive line to years of therapy, and Denver’s stellar secondary remained almost watertight, creating coverage pressure on the quarterback all day long.
And yet, the Patriots stuck around. Manning faded as the game went on, coming unstuck by missing on a wide-open touchdown in the fourth quarter which would have put the Broncos up two scores. Still though, at 20-12 the game felt like it was over. The Patriots were unable to move the ball fluently all day and Denver’s defence was rising to every clutch moment. But the guy from Colorado never felt comfortable – with every stop of the Patriots, every big defensive stand, he just kept on repeating, “It’s never over while Tom Brady still has a chance to get the ball back.”
As a Giants fan, I understood what he meant. In both New York’s Super Bowl wins over New England, Brady got the ball back with almost no time left, having to drive the entire field, but never for a moment did I feel comfortable. And surely enough, in the first Super Bowl he was inches away from hitting Randy Moss for a monster, game-changing gain, and in the second he pulled off one of the handful of most ridiculous quarterbacking plays I’ve ever seen, evading pressure and nailing a fourth and 15 pass to keep the game alive.
But on Sunday I thought it was over. Denver’s secondary was too good and the disparity between their defensive line and New England’s offensive line was too great. Brady had been hit 20 times in the game – more than any other player had been hit in any game this season. He was battered and he looked rattled. Even if he is the greatest quarterback of all time, not even Tom Brady could pull this off. But then he did. And then he did again.
Brady’s fourth and ten throw to Rob Gronkowski was one of the all-time great Lazarus moments. In the blink of an eye the game was over and then it really, really wasn’t. And then he did it again on fourth and goal. Both plays felt surreal to the point of being unreal. It was as though they weren’t supposed to happen, that this wasn’t what the universe had planned. But in the NFL, Tom Brady stands taller than the universe. He moulded it to his will and turned the game on its head – twice.
If he’d converted the two-point conversion as well it would have been too much. Even the great villains have to die at the end of the film – you can only come back from the dead so many times.
Sunday’s AFC title game was one of the great playoff match-ups, replete with storylines. There was Denver’s legendary defensive performance, showing themselves to be perhaps the single most imposing unit in the NFL on either side of the ball, a line-up so powerful that they have to be given a shot against Carolina to pull off the upset no matter how long the odds look right now.
There was Peyton Manning coming full circle, and there were Gronkowski’s heroics, which played no small part in Brady’s comeback.
But even though his stats were terrible and he couldn’t do anything for the first 59 minutes of game-time, I’ll still remember this past Sunday for Tom Brady, for the fear he struck in an opposing fan, no matter how irrational it felt, and how it was proven to be justified.
After the final whistle sounded, everyone watching the match in the hostel remained in their seats, still trying to process the final minute. I congratulated the guy from Colorado on making the Super Bowl, which is what you do. He gave me a nervous nod and didn’t say anything – he, like everyone else in the room, was stunned.
We were all still thinking about Tom Brady.
Shanky
Guest
I just want to say that I think Jay is a fantastic, articulate blogger on sports. I couldn't care less about the legal arguments but this bloke's articles are always enjoyable.
Steve
Guest
The texts are all rants about over inflating the balls to piss off Brady (effing balloons, rugby balls) after they got yelled at for the Jets game. Somehow the texts get translated to deflating balls to make Brady happy which is the exact opposite of what they said. Wells had 5 Patriot company cell phones and we know they went back at least a year on them. In those thousands and thousands and thousands of emails and texts not once did anyone say they deflated footballs, were going to deflate footballs, wanted to deflate footballs or that anyone wanted footballs deflated. The texts after the Jets game, where the ref "illegally" by nfl rules over inflated the footballs to 16 psi were nothing about "hey, how come you didnt deflate those" or "we'll have to make sure those get inflated next time" or anything remotely close to that. The Wells report was very clear that in all those thousands of texts, emails, and phone calls, not once did Brady ever contact McNally. The Wells report even stated that Brady never had any "substantive" conversation with McNally. The Wells report specifically stated that Brady cooperated. Wells himself specifically told Brady that he (Wells) did not want Brady's phone, that Brady could keep it. Brady handed over all relevant info during the appeal. It is the nl that has shown extreme prejudice and bias from the beginning. The nfl admitted that they had no previous knowledge of the ideal gas law. That means that if the footballs did not have the same psi on the cold field as they did in the locker room they would have no other understanding than to assume tampering. Every literate person should know by now that the footballs measure lower psi's on the cold field than the warm locker room and that they take a period of time to warm up and regain their psi levels when returned. The longer they warm up the closer they get to their original indoor psi. It is clear the nfl assumed guilt from the very beginning and went from there. Mike Kensil was on the Pats sideline in the 2nd half of the deflategate game taunting the Pats equipment manager with the F word about the psi's. Obviously Kensil had his mind made up then. The nfl then leaked false information (lies) to espn's Mortensen about the psi's to set public opinion against the Pats. The nfl then sent an official nfl letter to the Pats (which has been published) stating the blatant lie that one ball was 10.1 psi to diminish the Pats will to fight at a time when the Pats only knew what the nfl was telling them. Then nfl refused for months repeated requests by the Pats to correct the false information that had been leaked to the press (the letters between the nfl and Pats lawyers have been published). Then the nfl put out a Wells report that has shredded with revelations it contains numerous instances of fraud (falsified transient curve data - figures 28-28 - for example), deceit (figure 3 for example), and outright lying (the assertion on page 54 that the choice of a chilly and absurd 67 degrees for the pregame locker room was "advantageous" to the Pats for example). Not to mention that a number of qualified people, including an MIT professor who is an Eagles fan and roots against the Pats, have taken Wells own numbers and shown that the psi's are consistent with the ideal gas law (i.e. no tampering). Then, when the Brady appeal transcripts were unexpectedly made public by the judge (Goodell obviously thought those would never see the light of day), It was revealed that Goodell had totally, undeniably, and completely (pants on fire/hand in the cookie jar/pants down) lied about Brady's testimony in his appeal ruling. It was also revealed that all of Goodells many assertions that the Wells investigation was "independent" were blatant lies as the nfl's head attorney was essentially a co-author of the report. It was also revealed that it was the nfl that did not want the appeal transcripts made public and that Brady did want the transcripts made public which is the exact opposite had been leaked to the press. The nfl showed extreme prejudice and bias against the Pats from the beginning. At what point does a reasonable person say that the nfl has no credibility? Not to mention the simple common sense test. The idea that any footballs felt soft is a myth. The Colts linebacker that intercepted the football said that the ball felt normal to him. He noticed nothing irregular about the ball. When the nfl measured the ball, the psi was exactly where the Wells report said it should be (a tad high actually). Tom Brady touches the football for about 2 seconds a play, that's it. The refs handle the footballs all game long, easily 5 to 10 times as much as Brady. If there was a soft football, they would throw it out and get another. That alone should end the discussion. Just how much psi did the Wells report say they thought was unaccounted for? It's a trick question. The Wells report never stated what they thought was missing. You know why? Because even if you go with all Wall's bogus assumptions, like the use of the gauge that Walt Anderson didnt say he used and the absurd 67 degree pregame locker room temperature (when the nearest HVAC was set to 71-74 degrees), using Wells own numbers, the most they could claim was unaccounted for was 0.24 psi (which is 0.0 if Walt used the gauge he said he used) which is imperceptible to any human on the planet (which is 0.0 if Walt used the gauge he said he used) . Had Wells actually come out with that number, deflategate would have been over the next day and the nfl would have had egg all over its face. Instead, Wells did a statistical analysis so it could claim the difference in the Pats psi levels vs the Colts psi levels were "statistically significant". However, the statistical analysis in the report did not account for time warming (i.e. they ignored the whole ideal gas law thing) so that the analysis was irrelevant and meaningless. The whole issue is that they measured the Pats footballs soon after entering the locker room and obviously measured the Colts footballs at the end of halftime after the Colts footballs had time to warm up (since the Wells report specifically stated that they only measured 4 Colts footballs because they ran out of time at halftime). The statistical analysis assumed the footballs were measured all at the same instant and there was no warming. Clearly deflategate was framegate. The nfl had no idea that the footballs psi levels vary with temperature. Just keep in mind that if the nfl measured the footballs in the recent Seahawks/Vikings game, all the footballs (as in every one of them) would have measured between 9 and 10 psi if they were set to the "legal" range indoors pregame. Think the nfl will ever publish that data?
pete bloor
Guest
Sorry it just didn't seem to make sense to me as response to the above as it did seem like you were saying I was missing the point but we were agreeing... Apologies if I read it wrong.
steve
Guest
You've really focused on the crux of my comment there, pete! I actually think i was agreeing with you about it not really being a big deal.
Keagan Ryan
Roar Guru
Nice piece. We didn't deserve to be in that game at all. That defensive play from Denver was the best I've seen, no surprise the O-line coach was sacked the next day. Brady is the GOAT and we'll be back challenging again next year.
pete bloor
Guest
"The point" of what? I got asked why I think he probably had them inflated to his liking and have said I agreed with the end result of the suspension being overturned even though the findings of the report weren't.
steve
Guest
Pete, i think the point is that the whole thing seemed to very quickly become an over the top witch hunt that ultimately made the NFL look like keystone cops. The inconsistent 'rush job' on checking the footballs at half time (and the fact that only a portion of the colts footballs were checked) should have been enough to sound alarm bells at NFL hq about the need to proceed cautiously. I'm not saying the balls were or weren't deflated by the Pats (and i don't really care). But a more moderated review and process reform approach would probably have produced a better outcome and saved some face.
1st&10
Guest
-- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
1st&10
Guest
Brady appeared deflated -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
pete bloor
Guest
1. If I'm stuck between believing the Harvard Law and business school grad whose job it is to opine on such things or sports writers who won't do research... I'm going with the Harvard Law dude with real professional ramifications if he's just making stuff up. 2. Plenty of ex QBs came out and said - hey I did it we always viewed it as a "guideline" not a rule 3. Plenty of ex-QBs said they knew if it was more or less than what they wanted 4. The texts seem pretty damming, in a vacuum, to me. 5. The patriots were obfuscating the truth by arguing for a criminal burden of proof to be applied which they knew wasn't the case and that the NFL wouldn't have the powers to conduct such an investigation 6. His level of cooperation But like I said I don't think it was this massive thing. I'd think Amendola's blindside hit on the punt coverage guy for the Chiefs was a worse offence. From what I've read the Judge quashing the suspension was largely based on "The NFL were a-holes that over stepped the mark" He's not a villain for having done it.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
Nice piece, Jay. (Of course, I would say that, considering I'd leave my wife for Tom Brady.) That Denver D was incredible. I've never seen anything like it in my life. It was like they had two extra players on the field. I've never seen The Golden Boy hammered like that, and I've never seen him rattled like that. He was jumping at shadows - as most QBs would be - because the Broncs were consistently getting to him. It was a tough loss and it hurt, but all credit to Denver's D. They were amazing.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
Why do you think its more probable than not?
Worlds Biggest
Guest
The guy was beaten to a pulp by the Broncs D and still had them in the game at the end, not sure he is a villain seen by many. He is certainly the envy of many that is for sure ! Whilst he doesn't have the universal love of a Joe Montana ( one of my all time favourites ) he is highly respected and will go down as one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest.
joe
Guest
I'm almost certain Brady had the balls doctored to his liking. That said,I believe almost every top level QB,even in high school & college,has the ball adjusted to his liking. Its not a big deal to me.If a QB likes a ball a bit overinflated or a touch under inflated,so be it. They also scuff the balls to get a certain feel.Some like it shinier,others like a flat worn surface. The whole DeflateGate thing was jealousy on the part of the Colts.Thats what started it.Instead of worrying about the balls PSI when you get thrashed by 30pts,maybe take a look in the mirror & figure out why you have such a dysfunctional franchise from owner & GM down through the coaching ranks.
bear54
Pete I was skipping merrily around the lounge room anticipating a hand-off to Lynch and a second Championship..... then it all went to hell as Russell eyed off his receiver and Butler did the rest......... PS: I tipped the Bronco's to win last weekend too. They were at home and their magnificent defense led by the genius Wade Phillips gave them edge in my opinion. I hope they can do it again in the Super Bowl too!!!
pete bloor
Guest
Ps I think it’s more probable than not he had the balls deflated, I just don’t think its in line with steroids and agree with the overturning of the penalty based on Goodell over stepping his remit. I wouldn’t call him a villain, more the face of a franchise that has carved out a dislikeable image. I can’t see anyone not looking back fondly in a few year on how good of a player he was to watch play.
pete bloor
Guest
I stopped at this point: "The Wells Report was comical in its vague assertions (“more probable than not”) " straight after you lambasted people for their ignorance. "More probable than not" isn't a vague assertion, in fact quite the opposite it is a specific phrase for meeting the a standard of proof required for a "preponderance of evidence", the threshold for civil matters. It’s been covered at some point on just about every sports site I’ve read and is broadly consistent with our more likely than not test for many things. (I’m sure the actual professional lawyers will correct me on that one) If you’re going to run the “shedding light on your own ignorance and shadow complexes” you might want to research your article first.
Pete McAloney
Roar Pro
^You guys so should have won last year. That non-decision to leave Lynch without the ball on "that play" was truly perplexing. And now the word is the Beast-mode is considering retirement, it's all very sad. But I'm a Colts fan (what a year of woe I've endured) and therefore a Peyton fan, and so of course I hate the Patriots (I'm obliged to). I'm the only one in our tipping comp of a dozen or so that tipped the Broncos in the Championship game, yahoo! Unlike you and your viewing companions Jay, I was leaping about the room celebrating! What an incredible game. The Denver D was awesome, but Manning did his job as well, albeit not so awesome, but at least it was a long way from awful. Great write-up on Brady thanks. He and Belichick are such a successful combo. But the team reminds me so much of the Melbourne Storm when Bellamy would coach them past the edge of fair sportsmanship and into the realm of cheating and/or dirty play (chicken wing, grapple-tackle, and finally the salary cap violations). You know full well there have been far more incidents surrounding the Patriots than deflategate, which is why Tom and Bill are the NFL's villains. The weirdest thing about it, is that they have no need for such shenanigans. Oh, and of course the Patriots have prevented the Colts from reaching the Superbowl too many times for them to be anything other than villains in my eyes!
bear54
The only thing that annoys me about Brady is his penchant for looking at the umpire with pleading eyes every time he is sacked, hit or jostled and thrusting both arms in the air in expectation of a PI whenever a pass is broken up. Habits he's only developed over the past 5 odd years, before then he was much tougher and seemed to roll with the punches. Maybe he's just getting old???? Overall the Patriots courtesy of Brady & Belichick have been a champion side. Even as a Seahawks fan I've always admired what they've achieved.... even last year (sigh).