Here in Greater Boston, we like to think that Tom Brady is invincible. Never broken, never fazed, and always on his game, Brady has managed to inspire a region during his run of almost twenty years (holy shit!) as quarterback of the New England Patriots.
Brady’s eighteenth season is just around the corner. That’s a lot of football for anyone, even someone as angelic as Brady. Yeah, I said it.
The current offseason has been anything but quiet for Brady and his family. It hasn’t been pretty, either. For starters, Brady’s mother is sick. We don’t know what the extent of the illness is, but all signs point to something relatively serious.
On top of having to deal with this, Brady has also allegedly dealt with multiple unreported concussions over the years, although Brady’s wife Gisele Bundchen appears to have a different idea of what constitutes a concussion than Brady’s agent, Don Yee.
Third, Brady was slapped on the cover of Madden NFL 18. Thanks, EA. To be quite frank, I’m glad they waited until the tail end of TB12’s reign to bestow the Madden Curse on the Pats’ faithful.
And finally, there’s the elephant in the room. This elephant comes in the form of a 25-year-old quarterback from Eastern Illinois, known for his devastating good looks, who has backed up Brady for four years. Yeah, Jimmy Garoppolo is still here. And, from the looks of it, he’s not going anywhere.
You see, Brady could easily have another five years left in the National Football League, and given his current physical shape, that’s not far from reach. However, it’s becoming more and more clear that Brady faces pressure from his wife, day in and day out, to call it quits. Sooner or later, domestic happiness will win out over gridiron supremacy.
Secondly, Garoppolo is a fantastic fit for the Patriots’ offense. You know it, I know it, and guess what? Bill Belichick knows it, too. Garoppolo has the potential to thrive as a system quarterback in Foxboro, just as Brady has done for so many years. In order for him to enjoy success, however, he has to be given a chance. Patriots fans have to think long-term here. Could switching Brady out for Garoppolo down the road lead to long-term success? Probably. If you think about all we’ve seen from a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo over the last few years, it’s hard to deny how much of a positive effect he could have on the Patriots, who have seen just six quarterbacks start at least one regular-season game since Week 1 of the 1994 season.
Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback this league has ever seen. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise –it’s not an argument worth getting into. He is one of the greatest athletes to ever exist, up there with MJ, Gretzky, and the Great Bambino. However, even the greats are susceptible to the daily business of an organization. The Patriots had never won a ring before Brady took the wheel. Don’t we want to keep this incredible run of dominance going? Perhaps leaving Brady behind, prematurely, is part of this plan.
It’s going to be the goodbye to end all goodbyes. We don’t know when it’s going to happen. But think of it as that fine print you see on a rearview mirror. Sometimes things are closer than they may appear.
