Last nights game has a reminder that National Football Quarterback’s don’t keep playing at 45 years old….
Tom Brady is the exception….
Last night is the reminder confirmed?….
(I still do NOT think Dallas will be the Super Bowl)…
Brady slapped the side of his helmet, looked down and screamed. It was early in the second quarter, and Dallas was just beginning to separate from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys led 6-0, and Brady was responding the way Brady responds, directing a 14-play drive that put his team within five yards of the end zone. That’s when, on second and goal, the disaster occurred. Brady took a shotgun snap, faked a handoff, stepped back and pump-faked as two Cowboys ran after him. He panicked and tossed the football toward the back of the end zone. It didn’t sail out of trouble. It floated right into danger. In a 31-14 playoff loss, Brady and the Buccaneers wouldn’t threaten Dallas again.
Brady really doesn’t know how to quit. He couldn’t on that critical play. And he still isn’t inclined to abandon a gilded football life in which he is now chasing after things he had already caught.
It’s his prerogative. After 23 seasons of historic feats, after retiring for 40 days last offseason and then deciding he has “unfinished business,”Brady has earned the right to exit the game his way. He might have to get used to audience wincing instead of dropping jaws, but there’s nothing wrong with him riding his train to the end of the line….
image…Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were eliminated from the playoffs after a losing season. (John Raoux/AP)