Tom Brady Can Suck My Dick

1) the Pats *have* been widely disrespected at various points during their run. Exhibit A: widely considered to be the underdogs as the two-time champs playing at home in last year's playoffs against Indy, despite having dominated them for years.

2) the part about people giving up on them earlier in the season is certainly true. It's one thing to look at a 4-4 team with loads of injuries and say that they're done for even if they make the playoffs. But there was a lot of talk of the "even if they get healthy, this team can't win the SB" variety, which is unbelievably dumb considering they already HAVE won the SB with that team. Three times.

OTOH, he still drives his 1992 Corolla. They don't even make Corollas anymore!

I hope Jacksonville beats the shit out of them.

I think Kevin Faulk is the freaking secret weapon for the Pats success. That guy has had so many big plays turning 2 yard screens into big yardage it isn't funny. Faulk is the prototype of what a team wants with a 3rd down back.

Brady has been the perfect QB to go with that defense, as he has only thrown 3 interceptions in all of those playoff games. I'll give you that is impressive. Brady has been good by just not fucking up and having the luxury of never having to really air it out because they are behind.

It is more than Brady. They had a kicker who hit all of the big shots. The Pats got lucky on one of the oddest calls in the history of the game against the Raiders. They got a couple of TDs from their D, a couple of returns broke free (how they beat the Steelers once). Criminy, they won all three SB's by a field goal! It isn't like the Niners or Cowboys beating the Bills or Broncos by 40.

Also, sports media obsessed with winners non-shocker of the millenium. See: Derek Jeter's press vs Derek Jeter's talent.

The New England offense is terribly overrated and people suck their dick constantly, specifically Tom Brady's, is I believe the premise of the actual argument here.

I don't think the NE offense is overrated -- last year they were 3rd in points scored in the NFL.

One could argue that Peyton Manning has received just as much media fawning over the past few years as Brady.

Don't YOU still give a shit about jeter, ally? Or have you gone turncoat national league on us now that you're down in the stix?

But plenty of it has been "can't get it done in the big games", a la Marino and Elway, whereas Brady is seemingly always "the next Joe Montana."

THANK GOD FOR YOU DENVER. I WILL KEEP YOU IN MY PRAYERS FOREVER AND EVER.

man, I am sad!

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/7403/patsbroncos021dw.jpg

Getting behind and having to lob deep passes into coverage to make something happen is not as easy as it seems, no?

Welcome to the world that most QBs live within golden boy. It is a whole lot easier game when your D clamps down the other team and gives you choice field position.

Just wait two years Tom when that Pat's D is really fucking old and you are like oldman Farve throwing every third ball forty yards deep to some guy from South Dakota State praying to try and make something happen.

Look kiddo, I had to lead TD drives to win Superbowls, not leave it up to my kicker.

Get it, you are not me.

yours truly,

Joe Montana

The bottom line is that the Pats have played well over this stretch, but have also gotten almost every break. Tonight every break went against them. Six turnovers is a hell of a lot, and it was weird to see Brady through a pick, Faulk put the ball on the ground, Brown put the ball on the ground, Vinny missing a chipper, etc. It was the bizarro Patriots.

Brady tonight looked like Peyton has looked in all of the Colts' losses to the Pats... skittish, pissed off, frustrated, continuously hassled, and yet still putting up a decent game.

For me, Brady is Derek Jeter. He has been given the reputation of the ultimate winner. He's a valuable guy, and certainly one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL, but Derek Jeter and Tom Brady both become scrappy role players when they don't have talent around them, or the talent doesn't perform, and both of them are as capable of making big mistakes and gaffes as anyone.

So I was 2/3 correct = mostly correct?

Actually, I think it's 1/2 Brady-style "he's great" fawning, 2/5 "how do you stop Peyton Manning???? How????" hyperbolic chest-beating, and 1/10 "when will he do shit?" sulking (always at the end of the season).

I can't argue about Simms' dick-sucking. All I could think about was "ugh, this is exactly what it's like watching the Yankees play in the postseason."

FUCK TURNOVERS. Bellichick never shows emotion on the sidelines and he was throwing a tantrum after Faulk's fumble.

If Denver play like that that against Indy (or maybe even Pittsburgh), they'll get killed. You can't put up nearly zero offense for three quarters against Peyton Manning et al and wait for turnovers in order to win.

Beisel: 1978
Colvin: 1977
Green: 1979
Klecko: 1981
Hobbs: 1983
Gay: 1982
Poteat: 1977
Samuel: 1981
Seymour: 1979
Vrabel: 1975
Ty Warren: 1981
Wilfork: 1981
E. Wilson: 1980

Hard to call that an old defense. Sure, Bruschi and Harrison and McGinest are old, but there's a lot of young talent there.

Not to mention that Branch, Givens, Davis, Watson, Graham, most of the O line, are all about the same age... somewhere between 1978 and 1981. This is not an old team.

That comparison doesn't work ... a QB can't run, throw, and catch the ball himself. If the "talent doesn't perform", you'll lose no matter you have at QB.

Derek Jeter never carried the Yankee lineup, with the possible exception of 1999, his best (and MVP-worthy) season. Talent-wise, the Yankee lineup during their run >>>>> the Pats offense during their run.

I hear you saying this, and I agree to a point, but it isn't what I hear from EVERY sportscaster, every talk show host, etc. The adolation in the press and from many fans is very similar, and might i also add that the shortstop is often called the quarterback position in baseball.

Don't tell Kordell Stewart!

Brady = Favre only when he starts throwing 50-yd INT's into triple coverage in the first quarter of 0-0 games rather than the fourth quarter of 27-13 games. If and when that happens, I fully expect he'll get the Favre treatment from broadcasters, unfortunately.

I meant Brown's fumble ... but anyway, I watched some highlights and was reminded about how Tom Brady hadn't lost a playoff game since he was the catcher for his high school baseball team. That's fairly remarkable, but if that's not ammo for the Brady-haters I don't know what is. Even Favre didn't get hyped for playing basketball or backgammon in high school. What's next, are they going to dig up his twelve straight A's in fourth grade spelling?

Huffing, puffing, sprinting down the sideline, Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey made the interception that put an end to Denver's years of playoff misery and finished off New England's dominating dynasty.

The record shows that Bailey got caught and knocked down at the 1-yard line after his 100-yard return Saturday night. But his interception of Tom Brady did plenty of damage, setting up the game-changing touchdown in Denver's 27-13 victory over the defending Super Bowl champions.

"It was a great play by me," Bailey said.

Sure was.

It was the highlight of the first playoff game in the history of Invesco Field, which resulted in Denver's first postseason win since John Elway's last game, the 1998 Super Bowl.

Next week in the AFC championship game, the Broncos will play the winner of Sunday's meeting between Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.

New England (11-7), meanwhile, will go home, three wins short of NFL history.

Trying to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls, the Patriots simply didn't have enough to overcome Denver's steady play, a few bad breaks or their own five turnovers. That was one fewer than they had during their entire, record-setting 10-game playoff winning streak that ended at the hands of the Broncos (14-3).

"When you lose, you want to go down fighting," Brady said. "You want to go down playing your best and we didn't do that. We made it easy for them."

It didn't get really easy until Bailey changed the game.

The Patriots were moving the ball well in the third quarter. They cut a 10-3 deficit to four points on a field goal and had moved quickly to the Denver 5 for what could have been the go-ahead score.

But on third down from the 5, Bailey stepped in front Troy Brown in the end zone for the pick. He sprinted down the sideline and when he felt Kevin Faulk swipe at him helplessly about 70 yards into the trek, he thought he had it cinched.

Champions don't go down easily, though, and tight end Ben Watson wasn't quitting. Watson took an angle, and with Bailey slowing and bringing the ball down to his hip, Watson got there, knocked Bailey down and sent the ball flying out of bounds at the 1.

Or maybe through the end zone.

With Bailey lying on his back, grimacing and gasping for air, Belichick challenged the call, saying the ball flew out of the end zone, not at the 1, which would have given New England the ball back on a touchback.

"It was a great effort on his part," Belichick said of Watson.

But did it go out through the end zone?

"Go ask them," the coach said of the officials, who also set up Denver's first touchdown on a questionable pass-interference call in the end zone against Asante Samuel.

It was the kind of call a championship team might have gotten. With no decisive TV angle, though, the Pats didn't. On the next play, Mike Anderson scored his second 1-yard touchdown of the night and gave Denver a 17-6 lead.

"I never saw the guy coming, but I was going as hard as I could," Bailey said of the longest non-scoring interception return in NFL playoff history.

Not that anybody was questioning him. Nor is there any more doubt about who won in the blockbuster trade before the 2004 season, when the Broncos sent Clinton Portis to Washington for Bailey and a second-round pick.

Portis and the Redskins got knocked out of the playoffs Saturday. Bailey and the Broncos are moving on.

"I don't care about what happens tomorrow," Bailey said. "It doesn't matter if it's Pittsburgh or Indy. We got this one."

Trailing 17-6, always reliable Adam Vinatieri, the difference in all three of New England's three-point Super Bowl victories, missed a 42-yard field goal. Shortly after, Brown fumbled a punt return to set up Jake Plummer's lone touchdown pass of the night, a 4-yarder to Rod Smith for a 24-6 lead.

Plummer finished 15-for-26 for 197 yards with the touchdown and one interception.

And while the Denver quarterback won't be mistaken for Elway, or even Brady -- who threw for 341 yards in defeat -- that was the point: As has been proven all year, Plummer doesn't have to do it all for the Broncos to win.

There's the running game, held in check for most of this night, but good enough to grind out 96 yards and punch the ball in under duress at the goal line. There's the defense; Al Wilson made no fewer than four big plays in the first half to keep the game scoreless for the first 26 minutes.

Special teams were good, too, creating two turnovers, including one off a fumble forced by kicker Todd Sauerbrun, which led to a field goal and a 10-3 lead.

After Bailey's big play, and the non-reversal on Belichick's challenge, the coach stood there in his gray sweatshirt, looking nonplussed, as he's been throughout New England's four seasons of excellence. Behind him, though, the Patriots were coming apart, at least a little.

TV cameras showed Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest shoving teammate Larry Izzo away during an argument, while Mike Vrabel tried to calm McGinest down -- hardly the kind of poise they showed as they made their run toward history.

Meanwhile, the Broncos put on the finishing touches and got ready for next week.

Their fans, dressed in orange and loud as they've been in the five-year history of a stadium many thought was too cushy and comfortable for raucousness, chanted, "Let's Go Pittsburgh," hoping a Steelers win Sunday will bring their team back for another game.

If Indy wins, though, the Broncos will return to the site of their playoff demise the last two seasons, by a combined score of 90-34.

After last season's loss, a 49-24 embarrassment, Denver coach Mike Shanahan insisted the Broncos weren't too far away from being Super Bowl contenders. Lots of people snickered. Very few are snickering now, especially not the Patriots.

1) He has an enormous porn collection and no problem telling ESPN he has it (hellooooo ILX-type dude)
2) He likes Coldplay

From points 1 & 2, I say horseshoe OTM.