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There's Only Half of GOAT in TEAM

 Start with the obvious. Without Tom Brady at quarterback, there's no chance in a million the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would've reached the Super Bowl.

Move on to the almost as obvious but much less noted. All other things being equal, the Bucs could've WON the Super Bowl over the Chiefs with at least 10 other NFL quarterbacks inserted in Brady's place. Not just Aaron Rodgers or Deshaun Watson, either. Give Kirk Cousins a defense that holds the Chiefs without a touchdown, he'd deliver the Lombardi Trophy too.

Brady turned in a swell performance last Sunday night. He had three touchdown passes and no turnovers. If he only threw for 207 yards on 29 attempts, well, Tampa Bay had no need to pass in the fourth quarter, did it? It is, however, more realistic to view his Super Bowl MVP award as more of a Seasonal, or even Lifetime, Achievement Award. Based exclusively on the 60 minutes of game action, the real MVP was linebacker Devin White, or the edge rushers Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul. They were the primary wreckers of what had been the league's leading offense in 2020. They were the main factors behind the most significant statistic of Super Bowl 55 -- namely the right side of the scoreboard reading KC - 9.

This is such a familiar miscarriage of justice (the same one happened to the Patriots defense in Super Bowl 53) as to hardly merit comment. Since without Brady, the Bucs go at best 9-7 and lose to the Seahawks in the wild card round if they're lucky, it's hard to object. Super Bowl MVP is often an award meaning "Champion Team's MVP for the season." That's why Peyton Manning has one. On those grounds, Brady was overqualified.

When Brady arrived, the Bucs were a Maserati in which a Ford Focus engine had been installed by mistake. They didn't run too smoothly because Jameis Winston was a disastrous quarterback.  Brady found this situation a reviving challenge. It was fun to have a new team to bend to his will, a new set of potential disciples for his school of football theory and practice, fun to have a professional reset.  Brady finds every element of pro football, which is 99 percent miserable drudgery and one percent Game Day, sheer pleasure. It is possibly his remarkable gift that Brady can convince hard-bitten pros he's right on that score. By the time the playoffs started,  the Bucs were both jubilant and ferocious. It's a tough combo to beat.

However, the reverse of the coin is equally true. Without the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tom Brady doesn't get near his seventh NFL championship. He's still a Patriot in 2020, his team goes 10-6 tops and gets mushed by the Titans or Bills or Ravens in the wild card round. Brady needed the plethora of offense playmakers on the Bucs' roster to maximize his individual abilities. He sure as hell needed that defense to bail him out against the Saints, and to nullify the three interceptions he threw in the second half against the Packers in the NFC title game.

Every single Buc played a superior game against the Chiefs, many much better than that. This is what it takes to turn a Super Bowl into a blowout. Brady deserves all the praise you want to give him for this season. His teammates as a group deserve more. What happens if Tampa Bay's offensive line had turned in an effort comparable to the Chiefs' turnstile impressions? Quarterback is the most important position on any football team, and Brady's the best ever at the job. But quarterback's importance is only a plurality, not a majority, of a football team's whole. To prove that, just compare Brady down the stretch of his 2019 season in New England and Brady down the stretch this season.

So did Brady do more to make the Bucs into champions or did they, all the rest of the players and coaches, do more to return him to a championship? The answer is "yes." 

posted by Michael Gee @ 1:58 PM