18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey attends the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Green Bay Packers football game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fl., Dec. 21, 2014. During his visit, Gen. Dempsey visited with military members and families in attendance, and Buccaneer staff and team owners. DoD photo by Army Staff Sgt. Sean K. Harp/Released
Wow, that was quite the show. As local sportscaster Bob Lobel used to ask when a former New England player found success on another team: Why can’t we get players like that?
From the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaugnessy (abridged)
It’s Brady’s seventh Super Bowl victory, more than any NFL franchise. He was named Super Bowl MVP for a record fifth time; John Elway is the only other quarterback to make five Super Bowl starts, period.
How does that taste, Bill Belichick? And what about you, Bob Kraft? Still think Brady wasn’t worth a two-year contract after six Lombardis, nine conference championships, and 17 division titles?
Not to pile on here, but it has to be pointed out that Brady’s touchdown passes against the Chiefs were thrown to Rob Gronkowski (two) and Antonio Brown, two more ex-Patriots. This could not have worked out better for Brady, or worse for the 7-9, non-playoff, Brady-less Pats. I was expecting a TD pass to Mookie Betts before the night was over.
With Brady matching up against KC young gun Patrick Mahomes, CBS billed the game as “the Super Bowl the universe has been waiting for.” A tad lofty, perhaps, but there is no such thing as overstatement when you are talking about Tom Brady.
It was a regional mind-bender for Patriot Nation. In the lead-up to the game, The Wall Street Journal featured a page one story in which clinical psychologists and “breakup coaches” — did you know they existed? — speculated on the mindset of New England football fans who feel jilted by Tom.
Indeed, even though this game pitted teams from Tampa and Kansas City, Super Bowl 55 was all about us. Here in 2021, our doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, and parents of little children were middle schoolers eating Super Bowl sheet cakes and raising foam fingers when 24-year-old Brady beat the heavily-favored Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI on Feb. 3, 2002.
Fast forward 19 years and Brady has stopped the clock. The bells do not toll for him. The Sunday New York Times put him on a par with freak carnival figures, like P.T. Barnum’s bearded lady and four-legged girl: “. . . Brady, wearing a new costume, performs like a carnival act — Come see the ageless man! . . .”
The ageless one started slow Sunday, but got a lot of help from the Chiefs and the zebras.
Tom was smothered on Tampa’s first two possessions, which resulted in punts. And then, just as Jim Nantz and Tony Romo were telling the CBS audience that Brady had never led his team to a first-quarter touchdown in a Super Bowl, Brady drove the Bucs downfield and threw an 8-yard TD pass to Gronk for a 7-3 lead in the final minute.
It was the 13th time Brady and Gronk combined for a TD in the playoffs, a new NFL record. The biggest play of the drive was a 16-yard Brady completion to the nefarious AB, who played one game for New England in 2019.
Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.
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