Brady shines on the largest stage
GLENDALE, Ariz. — With the world watching, with his reputation on the line, Tom Brady did not flinch.
He was not perfect, but he did not flinch.
Targeted by his peers and his coach as the crux of Deflategate, Brady saw his impeccable image erode over a 2-week period of accusation and recrimination.
His two early interceptions, more than any other factor, put Seattle in position to repeat as Super Bowl champions. The Seahawks took a 24-14 lead into the fourth quarter.
Then, trailing by three with just under 7 minutes left, Brady led a fourth-quarter comeback drive for the ages. He dissected the best defense of his generation. He finished it with a 3-yard touchdown strike to Julian Edelman, his fourth TD score of the perfect desert night, for a 28-24 win.
Brady set a Super Bowl record with 37 completions, three more than Peyton Manning had in last year's loss. He completed 37 of 50 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns.
He set a Super Bowl record by throwing his 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th touchdown passes and now stands two ahead of Joe Montana.
Manning.
Montana.
Now, looking up at Brady.
He is eye-to-eye with Montana and Terry Bradshaw, who, like Brady, have four Super Bowl wins. Brady won his first three attempts but lost his last two tries.
The game was saved on a bizarre play-call, when the Seahawks ignored touchdown machine Marshawn Lynch and asked Russell Wilson to throw. He threw a goal-line pass that Malcolm Butler anticipated and intercepted with 20 seconds to play.
It was incredible — a gutting waste of a 2-minute push that seemed a deliverance of karma to the team daily referred by its legions of detractors as the Beli-Cheats.
Brady flinched some early.
He flinched in the face of Michael Bennett's rush. He appeared to be trying to throw it out of the end zone, but the pass died near the goal line. That's where Jeremy Lane intercepted it, and deflated the Patriots' first-quarter dominance.
Apparently, fully-inflated footballs are harder to throw away.
Brady seemed to have full control of the pass to Rob Gronkowski that Bobby Wagner intercepted in the third quarter. He just stared Gronk down.
Still, if it had arrived a little crisper
Really, this sort of commentary is anything but fair.
But then, what in the Patriots' history as earned them the benefit of the doubt?
They were stung in 2007 for filming opponents' signals on the sideline, an illegal act the NFL determined they had practiced for years. The practice included the span in which they won their three Super Bowls, including XXXIX over the Eagles in Jacksonville.
Brady and the Patriots are under investigation for using illegal footballs in the first half of their AFC Championship Game win over the Colts 2 weeks ago. That investigation might tarnish what the Patriots did to get here.
But the balls were legal last night.