Tom Brady

Nov 20, 2019 1:13:59 GMT njcardfan said:

Nov 20, 2019 0:28:32 GMT Rey Kahuka said:

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You guys are making my argument for me. It's like Mike Trout. Mike Trout was good in high school, good enough to get scouted and drafted in the first round, but he wasn't best player on the planet good. Even his minor and fall league numbers are slightly above average. It wasn't until he came up when he started hitting homeruns. Anyhoo, as I stated above, Brady's numbers in college were pedestrian at best. Middle of the road. Then he comes to the NFL and becomes the GOAT. It's a mystery. 

It is a mystery. Tom Brady is possibly the most fascinating athlete in history for that very reason. Look at this thread. Nobody ever asks if other athletes were great because of a system, they just accept that they were great. Manning, Montana, Jordan, LeBron, Gretzky, Lemieux, Ruth, Mays.  People debate how much their supporting casts helped them win rings, but nobody (except haters, everyone has haters) questions their individual greatness-- except Tom Brady. You don't come across as a hater, yet here you are asking if he's the product of a system.

The GOAT isn't supposed to be drafted 199th, so people just can't wrap their minds around it.  They make up excuses for his success.

Spygate- The Patriots dug their own grave with this one, but I still want to know how the cameras brought them three titles and yet didn't seem to work in 2002 when they went 9-7 and missed the playoffs, or in 2005 and 2006.  Yet Brady and the Patriots actually saw their winning percentage increase in the years after Spygate, and they eventually won three more titles.  So much for that theory. 

Deflategate- Multiple national publications have debunked Deflategate, and Brady's stats improved across the board the year after Deflategate accusations (from 2014 to 2015), when the balls were supposedly no longer being tampered with.  (Not to mention the Patriots once again had the fewest fumbles in the league in 2015.)  So much for that theory. 

It's the Belichick system - I thoroughly explored this earlier in the thread, but to recap, Brady has had multiple OC's and a head coach known for defense not offense, and none of them have had success without Brady.  So much for that theory.

Goodell and the NFL are rigging things for the Patriots - See the above link about the corrupt Deflategate investigation and tell me the league is doing them favors.  And as for the 'easy schedule' argument, here is the formula that is used for every team's schedule, and here is how the Patriots do against every division in football (they win at the same rate).  So much for that theory.

I can't think of another professional athlete that people go out of their way to invent narratives as to why they're not great.  People will say so-and-so is better, but nobody ever says they straight up aren't any good and are only the product of a system.  It's incredible.

One of my favorite aspects of Brady's career is that he isn't a product of hype.  He had to earn it, maybe that's why he's still motivated at age 42?  As I pointed out earlier, his college career mirrors his professional success.  When given the opportunity to excel, he makes the most of it.  Tell him to be a game manager and he wins the Super Bowl as a first year starter.  Rely more on the offense and he starts putting up numbers.  Hand him Randy Moss and Wes Welker and he goes 16-0 and throws 50 TD passes.  Put him down 10 in the 4th qtr of the Super Bowl against the defending champion Seahawks and their #1 defense and he leads two TD drives to win.  Put him down 25 late in the third qtr of a Super Bowl and he comes back to win.  Winning is in his DNA.  He proved it at Michigan and he keeps proving it in the NFL year after year. 

How is he this good?  I have no idea.  But nobody else needs a reason for their greatness, so I don't bother asking in his case, either.