There is a great scene in the first season of The Wire where D’Angelo Barksdale explains the game of chess in terms anyone who has grown up in the drug game would understand. The pawns come and go, but the king gets to stay the king. Since 2001, Tom Brady has been the king of the New England Patriots. Brady is the only player remaining from the Patriots teams that won Super Bowl XXXVI and XXXVIII, and Vince Wilfork is the only other guy left from Super Bowl XXXIX. Plenty of pawns have moved on from the Patriots, and my have gone into coaching and broadcasting, but Brady (along with Bill Belichick) remains the constant. It’s been a great run, but how much longer can Tom Brady stay at the top?
Last month, the Pats used a 2nd round draft pick to select a talented young quarterback named Jimmy Garoppolo from Eastern Illinois University. While Brady remains one of the elite QBs in the NFL, right up there with Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers, he’s getting up there in age. Brady, who will turn 37 in August, still plays at a very high level, but it is safe to say he has more years behind him than ahead of him. While I believe Brady is definitely the Pats’ starting QB for this season as long as he’s healthy, Garoppolo is the greatest challenger for the starting job since Drew Bledsoe filled in for the injured Brady in the AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2002. How long Brady can keep doing what he’s doing where he’s doing it will be interesting to see in the next few years.
Brady knows better than anyone how hard it is to become a starting quarterback in the NFL, and how hard it is to stay there. He was, after all, the second year QB out of the University of Michigan who filled in for an injured franchise QB and former #1 overall pick in Drew Bledsoe, and never gave the starting job back. Brady saw his childhood hero, Joe Montana, get replaced by talented backup and future Hall of Famer Steve Young when Montana still had something left in the tank, and get traded from the San Francisco 49ers to the Kansas City Chiefs as a result. During Brady’s own playing career, a similar situation unfolded with the Green Bay Packers, who traded longtime star quarterback Brett Favre to the New York Jets to clear the way for current franchise superstar Aaron Rodgers. Tom Brady is a hard worker, but he will have to work harder than he ever has if he wants to be the Patriots’ starter when he’s 40.
I trust Bill Belichick to make the right football decision when the time comes to make it. Belichick drafted both quarterbacks, so his ego won’t get in the way of that one. If Garoppolo ever gets the start over Brady, it will be because Garopollo is the better quarterback. As much as I would love to see Brady be a Patriot for life, it’s time to acknowledge that a competitor and lover of the game life Brady might want to play until he is 45, and the Patriots will not keep him around just because of the Super Bowls he won before he turned 30. It’s been a great run, and I hope it continues, but nobody stays the king forever. Not in football.
Dave's Words 