As the wise old adage goes, "Never count out Touchdown Tom." This is something I, as a massive Tom Brady fan, continue to ignore despite his consistent ability to prove me wrong. As a younger fan, it took me until Super Bowl XLIX between the Patriots and Seahawks to truly count out Touchdown Tom. This is because my first full experience watching Tom Brady was his historic performance in the Patriots 59-0 blowout win over the Titans in 2009. My second full experience that I remember was his demolishing of the Denver Broncos in the 2011 playoffs to the tune of a 45-10 victory. I think he threw a total of 10 touchdowns in the first half of both games. The Patriots would proceed to play the Giants in the Super Bowl that year. Down 21-17 with just a few seconds to go in the game, Brady and his guys set up for a hail mary. At this moment, I fully expected Touchdown Tom to do what he does best, and throw a touchdown. Instead, his attempt fell incomplete and I was heartbroken. However, at no point in time did I count him out.
When the Patriots were down 24-14 against Seattle in the biggest game of the year, I had experienced enough playoff failure at this point to believe that they might just lose. Of course, Tom Brady simply did not allow this, leading two masterful touchdown drives against the most talented defense of all time en route to Super Bowl MVP and his fourth ring. So, a few years later when the Patriots trailed the Falcons 14-0 in the second quarter of Super Bowl LI, I was not worried. But then, Brady threw a pick six. And then the Falcons led off the third quarter with another touchdown, putting Brady and the boys down 28-3. Feeling defeated, I went home from my grandparents house where I was watching the game. Then, in a moment of great fortune, I decided I had nothing against the Falcons and thought it would be nice to see them wrap up their first Super Bowl win. I turned on the game and it was 28-12. Brady proceeded to hit Danny Amendola for a touchdown, and then followed that up with a successful 2 point conversion. Just a few drives later and the game was tied at 28. In overtime, Brady surgically led his random cast of characters down the field for a game winning touchdown. I had learned my lesson yet again: never count out Touchdown Tom.
I didn't count him out when he trailed the Jaguars 20-10 in the subsequent AFC championship game. Down 38-33 against the Eagles in the Super Bowl, I fully expected him to lead the game winning drive. When he didn't, I was in shambles, but I ultimately chalked it up to bad luck. When he threw that game losing interception (which wasn't his fault anyways) against the Chiefs in the next season's AFC championship game, I didn't believe it was game losing. The Patriots still had 3 timeouts, and there was still 50 seconds to go. One stop, Brady gets the ball back and leads a quick touchdown drive. Easy. Of course, Dee Ford's goofy ass was offsides, so we didn't even have to go through that mess. The Patriots scored, and then Brady converted three consecutive 3rd and longs in overtime to win the game. Easy.
I did count out Touchdown Tom vs the Titans in the next year's wild card game, but I was more just counting out the rest of the morons that played around him, because they fucking sucked. Throughout the Buccaneers struggles in 2020, I never thought they were not the best team in football. And then they won the Super Bowl. When the Buccaneers trailed the Rams 27-3 in the divisional round last year, I did count out Touchdown Tom just a bit. Why? Because Von Miller was being a bastard man. However, Tom still led the fucking comeback and tied the game at 27.
This year, I've counted him out many times. I counted him out against the Rams, the Saints, and almost the Cardinals (I didn't really believe he would lose to Trace McSorley, but he was pretty damn close). He led clutch drives in all of them. Then, yesterday happened. Brady, at age 45 going through easily the worst season of his career, determined enough was enough. After a year of horrible offensive performance headlined by an awful run game and a depressing lack of big plays, Brady started bombing it to Evans. And it worked. In the most important game of the year, in the NFC South championship, Tom Brady had one of the best games of his career. Why? Because he is the fucking GOAT. That's why.
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