Credit… Mike Segar/Reuters
Unsurprisingly, Tom Brady’s time in the NFL spotlight got off to an almost fairy-tale prophetic start. In a Super Bowl 20 years ago, Brady’s New England Patriots were two-touchdown losers to the St. Louis Rams in large part because Brady was a discarded trainee who stepped into a starting role when the primary quarterback stepped down. injured.
But then Bill Belichick conjured up a solid defensive strategy and Brady’s competent play kept New England in a tied game until the final 97 seconds, when the Patriots took possession of the ball at their own 17-yard line. They had no timeouts left.
John Madden, a Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and the most respected broadcaster in the country, begged Brady to run out time so the Patriots could await their fate in overtime. “You don’t want to do anything stupid,” Madden, who died in late December, told his many million viewers.
A soccer legend warned the soccer nobody. Brady didn’t listen. He completed three passes and the Patriots moved into Rams territory.
“This guy is really cool,” Madden said, heralding two decades of Brady promoting everything from Tag Heuer watches to Aston Martin sports cars.
Brady then fired another perfect pass for 23 yards.
Credit…Doug Mills/Associated Press
“Unbelievable,” gushed Madden, now a believer. “They’re letting it all hang out.”
After another Brady completion, a 48-yard field goal on the final play of the game gave the Patriots their first Super Bowl victory.
“What Tom Brady just did gives me goosebumps,” Madden said.
In a postgame interview, Brady’s face was flushed, his hair disheveled like a kid coming in from the playground. He was informed that Madden, before the game’s final drive, had insisted that the Patriots should play conservatively, settling for overtime.
“Madden was worried you would do something stupid,” a reporter said.
Brady, then 24, seemed hurt at first. Then he considered what he had just done.
Grinning mischievously, Brady said that Madden, the game’s biggest celebrity at the time, was wrong. Brady added: “I can say that, right?”
He could then, and for the next two decades, he could say just about anything he wanted. Brady’s stardom and his football wizardry were deeply intertwined with the narrative of the cultural monolith the NFL would become over the course of his career.
Source: www.nytimes.com