2012 NFL Playoffs : Has New England Patriots QB Tom Brady Been Disrespected?

Published: 21^st Jan 12 7:00 pm

by Robert D. Cobb
Cleveland Browns Featured Columnist, Follow me on Twitter, @RobertCobb_76

RANT It!

David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE

FOXBORO, MA — With the New England Patriots set to face the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, one player who have something on the line is quarterback Tom Brady.

Brady, who would become the third quarterback in NFL history to pass for over 5,000 yards—Dan Marino (5,084 in 1984) Drew Brees (5,069 in 2008 and 5,476 in 2011) and Matthew Stafford (5,038 in 2011) and second behind Brees in yards passing in a season, has become a bit of a after-thought this post-season.

It is not too often that a man who is a three-time Super Bowl champion, NFL Comeback Player Of The Year, two-time NFL MVP and married to a Victoria Secret’s supermodel in Gisele Bundchen is the subject of disrespect, despite New England’s 45-10 thrashing of Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, there still seems to be a underlying slight of Brady.

Is it jealousy? Is it because rival fans see Brady as the focal point—and face—of their never-ending bitterness because of Spygate?

It cannot be because the Patriots have been the most dominant team in terms of Super Bowl wins—sorry, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis—of the 2000’s, his 15-5 post-season record or his 124-35 record as a starter in the regular season?

Maybe it is because of his NFL record 50 touchdowns or his 21-game win streak that irks detractors the most, or maybe it could because he is the reason for the “Tuck Rule” which changed the way one sees a incomplete forward pass or a fumble, or perhaps it is the “Tom Brady Rule” which protect quarterbacks from being hit illegally.

Going into their game against the Broncos, they was an unprecedented amount of media coverage on Tebow and his thrilling 29-23 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and criticism of Brady’s recent post-season failures that made one believe that Tebow was the only quarterback playing last week in Foxboro.

Despite leading the NFL’s top-scoring offense in the regular season, it is the defense that is the focus of critics—who proceed to give Brady a left-handed complement—as the reason for the main reason why they are one game from Super Bowl XLVI.

They say that great players make average players special, if that is the case then players such as Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Troy Brown, Danny Woodhead, Benjarvus Green-Ellis, Rob Gronkowski, Corey Dillon and Randy Moss owe Brady for either resuscitating their own careers, or in helping make theirs.

Despite being a seven-point favorite at home, many still see Brady as the mere beneficiary of a spread offense with two average wideouts in Welker and Branch and a suspect defense, while at the same time making Baltimore sound like the 1985 “Monsters Of The Midway”

Granted, Ravens linebackers Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs are not Richard Dent and Mike Singletary, they make Brady sound more like Charlie Brown than this generation’s Joe Montana.

They say that respect is earned—not given, as it pre-maturely to Tebow—and while the Ravens have a grudgingly great respect for Brady, come Sunday, look for Brady to be driven—thanks in large part to the media—to once again show why he is this generation’s best quarterback and signal to his critics that he is still the best.

Follow me on Twitter, @Dawgfather_76