Thank You Brady.

Not writing this to earn a free ticket to Super Bowl Fifty-Three. I've been a Tom Brady fan since 2010. That's when I started watching football. It was because of Tom Brady that I became a New England Patriots' fan. First I started following him because he was a good looking dude and he won a game against the New York Jets by a big margin. When I lived in Pakistan, I was all about looking good and stylish. So when I saw Tom Brady in a football game and watched him dominate his opponent, I said to myself... 'Man, I need to read about him.' So I went to Wikipedia and read about him in detail. Then I watched youtube videos in which I saw how he was inserted in the starting lineup and won Super Bowls early in his career.

  At the time he hadn't won the most, but he had won the most and appeared in the most Super Bowls in the 2000s. The thing that caught my attention was that he wasn't even the top guy when he came out of college. Nobody was impressed with his college career and with his physical attributes. His owner didn't even know his name when the Patriots drafted him. Then Tom Brady kinda got ticked off and promised Robert Kraft (the owner of the Patriots) and himself that he was going to make history. That's what he went onto do.

  In his nineteen seasons and eighteen as a starter, Tom Brady has led the Patriots to nine Super Bowl appearances, won five of them, and now has a chance to win his sixth in eight days from now. On his way to nine Super Bowls, he has won the most games in the regular season and in the postseason. He has brought his team back from several fourth-quarter deficits. No game is over until the clock hits zero when it comes to Tom Brady.

  I have seen him down by ten in the fourth quarter. I have seen him down by nineteen in the fourth quarter. I have seen him down by twenty-four at the start of the second half. Then I get to see him march back to the field and make key throw after key throw to get first downs and get the drive moving. Once he and the offense get into a rhythm, nobody can stop him from scoring points. Defense of the Patriots is good with doing its job as its get key stops during the game, but all of its efforts wouldn't matter at all if the quarterback doesn't have the fire and desire to get on the field and make clutch plays to get points. Not saying it is easy for defense to get stops and hold the opposing offense to three or fewer points in the fourth quarter, but likelihood of the defense shutting down an offense in a quarter is more than the quarterback and the offense scoring fourteen to seventeen points in the final quarter. Especially when you are behind in the fourth quarter by a big margin. I have seen good to great quarterbacks throw awful passes for an interception, or just make dumb mistakes while they are down by two scores in the fourth quarter. Like Brady, those quarterbacks have engineered second half and fourth quarter comebacks, but not as much as Tom Brady has in the biggest of moments.

In Super Bowl 49 against the Seattle Seahawks, Pats entered the fourth quarter down by ten. Early in the quarter, a graphic came up that said 'no team has ever come back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter.' Tom Brady and the offense engineered back to back touchdown drives to outscore their opponent to win the game. Those touchdown drives included two to three third and long conversions. The game ended with the defense coming up with the interception, but to overcome a double-digit lead against the best defense that year was a pretty special thing Tom Brady did. That Super Bowl win was his fourth and first in ten years.

  Two games prior to Super Bowl 49 between Pats and Seahawks, Tom Brady and the Pats hosted the Baltimore Ravens at home in the Divisional Round. Prior to that game, the Ravens with Joe Flacco had dominated the Patriots at Foxborough in the playoffs. The Patriots had lost two of the three previous playoff games to the Ravens led by Flacco, and both of those losses were by double-digit points. Guess how this Divisional Round game in 2014 started? It started with the Ravens taking a quick 14-0 nothing lead and completely taking the crowd away from the game. I and every single Patriots' fan at that moment were shocked by how the game started, and we were nervous that we were going to lose to the Ravens again. Then Tom Brady got it going in the game and scored fourteen straight points to tie the game. After the Pats tied the game, I said to myself while looking at the TV screen, there is no way Tom Brady will let the Ravens win at his house in the playoffs again. However, the Baltimore Ravens quickly ruined my excitement and scored fourteen straight points again to retake a fourteen point lead. Then all of the Pats Nation thought the game was over, and Tom Brady will never ever win his fourth Super Bowl. I was so disturbed and lost, and I just couldn't see the Pats overcoming a fourteen point deficit for the second time in the same game. Tom Brady said watch this! Facing a fourteen point deficit for the second time in the game, Tom Brady knew there wasn't any margin of error. He then led them to three touchdown drives, threw two of them, and one of them was a game winner to Brandon LaFell. The game-winner to LaFell was a thing of beauty. This was the first game by Brady and the Patriots that had me jumping up and down after the Patriots scored the game winner and after the defense denied the Ravens to score a touchdown in the final seconds.

  2014 postseason run was incredible, but Tom Brady was saving something even more incredible for us in 2016. In the postseason, the Patriots won the first two games pretty convincingly as they won both games by double-digits. However, many of the Patriots' doubters picked the Pittsburgh Steelers to beat them in the AFC Championship game, as the Patriots didn't have their big boy Rob Gronkowski for that game (and for the seven of the eight prior games).  Then the Patriots squared off against the Atlanta Falcons for Super Bowl 51. Tom Brady and the offense in the first half were able to move the ball up and down, but they couldn't score any points. They didn't score any points until the last drive of the first half after the Falcons had taken a twenty-one point lead. The Patriot had the ball to start the second half. We knew the game wasn't over and Patriots just needed to score a touchdown to get back in the game. They failed to score any points! Falcons, on the other hand, they scored a touchdown and increased their lead to 28-3. At that time I said to myself that Brady has been in bad situations before, but this is way too late and way too big of a margin to overcome. I had a feeling Tom Brady will make it competitive and try to finish the game strong. In my heart of hearts, I felt there was a chance that Brady and Patriots just might complete the greatest comeback of all time and win the game. That's what went onto happened. Brady and the Pats scored twenty-five straight points to tie the game and send it to overtime. Nineteen of the twenty-five points were scored in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, Tom Brady and the Pats scored two touchdowns with each of those followed by a successful two-point conversion. This was the third game by the Pats that had me jumping up and down. Then in overtime, Pats won the toss, Brady got the ball, and we all knew what was going to happen. Touchdown happened and the Pats won by finishing the greatest comeback in the history of Super Bowl. In the fourth quarter and overtime, Tom Brady managed to pass for 246 yards. To pass for that many yards in one and a half quarter is almost impossible to do. We have seen quarterbacks go full games without even passing for a total of two-hundred yards. That game was pure magic. It was a magical moment in my life as a football fan.

Brady's magic didn't end after Super Bowl 51. It continued in the regular season and in the postseason of 2017, and then in the regular and postseason of 2018. He had an awesome come from behind win at home against the Houston Texans in week three. That game ended with Tom Brady throwing a beautiful pass to Brandin Cooks for a twenty-five-yard touchdown, and then Brady throwing it back to Cooks for the two-point conversion. Then we had the important game in week fifteen between the Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Had Steelers won that game, they would have secured the number one seed for the playoffs. Tom Brady and the Patriots denied them of that as the Patriots' offense scored a touchdown in their final offensive drive, and got a turnover in their final defensive drive of the game. Then the Pats went on to win two straight games to conclude the regular season as the number one seed in the AFC. In the AFC Title game, Tom Brady and the Patriots hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars. The defense of the Jaguars had the same formula that the New York Giants' defense had in 2007 and in 2011 to beat the Patriots in the big game. Tom Brady was already without his favorite target in Julian Edelman who was out for the entire season, and later in the game, just before the first half ended, he lost his other favorite target in Rob Gronkowski. The Jaguars had dominated most of the game and took a ten point lead early in the fourth quarter. Then Tom Brady had another masterpiece in the fourth quarter in which he drove his offense to back to back touchdown drives for the lead. He passed for 140 yards, converted on a third & eighteen with a twenty-one-yard pass to Danny Amendola, and threw two touchdowns. Both of his touchdowns were also caught by Danny Amendola. That Jacksonville Jaguars team had a pretty talented defense, and I thought they had a great chance to end Brady's dominance. But Brady, with no Gronk and Edelman, wanted to prove to all of us that he was nowhere done!

  Then came Super Bowl 52. I thought that the Pats' could finally have a Super Bowl that they would win by two scores, as the Philadelphia Eagles were playing with their backup quarterback in Nick Foles. I completely underestimated Nick Foles! Tom Brady played really good in that game, but Nick Foles' played slightly better than Brady. Yes, Brady did set an all-time record for most passing yards in a Super Bowl game by passing for 505 yards, but he left couple plays in the game. Nick Foles on the other side, made all the key plays to help his team win their very first Super Bowl in their franchise history. Brady in that game had a chance to retake the lead in the game, but he held the ball too long on one play. He got hit by Brandon Graham, fumbled the ball, and lost it to the Eagles' defense. Brady got one final chance with the ball to tie the game and send it to overtime. He almost did that! He threw a hail marry into the end-zone and his guy Gronk had a great shot of catching it. The Eagles' defender just played that pass pretty well and made sure it wasn't caught by Gronk or some other Patriot. Tom Brady lost that game but he still put up a great fight in that game. He, at the age of forty, took his team to the Super Bowl and scored thirty-three points in a loss. What he did in a season at the age of forty was amazing. He also won the regular season MVP that year.

  Brady entered the 2019 season as a 41-year-old quarterback. Several of doubters such as Max Kellerman, Jason McIntyre, Rob Paker, and others came to their TV shows and said this was it. They said Brady is going to fall off a cliff and it is going to be very ugly. I remember after Brady and the Patriots defeated the Houston Texans in week one, Max Kellerman came out and said that Tom Brady beat the cliff by one game. Kellerman went onto say that Tom Brady finally did something in his career. His co-workers Steven A Smith and Molly Qerim both laughed in disgust and reminded Kellerman what Brady had done up until that point. Jason McIntyre, who is an annoying analyst on FS1, said prior to week four, that the Miami Dolphins who were 3-0 at the time and were visiting the 1-2 Patriots, were going to beat Tom Brady and the Patriots, and then the score would say Father Time 1 and Brady 0. Tom Brady and the Patriots handily defeated the Dolphins in week four, and Jason McIntyre was nowhere to be found the following Monday. Rob Parker recently admitted on TV that he has been predicting an end to Tom Brady's and the Patriots' dominance since the Patriots second Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants in 2011. I remember him saying following that Super Bowl loss in 2011, that Brady will never reach and win a Super Bowl again. Brady, since then has been to four Super Bowls, won two, lost one, and the last one will be played in eight days from now.

  In 2019, Brady and the Patriots for the first time since 2010 didn't win at least twelve games in the season. They had a losing record on the road and all five of their losses came against non-playoff teams. However, Brady and the Patriots defeated four playoff teams including the Kansas City-Chiefs in a 43-40 shoot-out. Tom Brady and the Patriots also defeated Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers at home. Rob Parker didn't bring up this win over the Packers, because Rob Parker believes Rodgers' is a way better quarterback than Tom Brady. Parker says that Tom Brady is more accomplished, but Rodgers' plays quarterback position better than Brady. Well, how is Brady more accomplished than Rodgers? Brady is more accomplished than Rodgers because Brady is more clutch and makes better decision making at the quarterback position to win games. Football is an ultimate team sport, but the quarterback is the key position.

  During the playoff run, Tom Brady and the Patriots defeated two superior teams than them. First, they beat the LA Chargers in the Divisional Round, and then the Kansas City Chiefs on the road in the AFC Championship game. The win against the Chiefs extended the distance between Tom Brady and the second-best quarterback of all-time even more. Tom Brady and the Patriots dominated all of the first half but then in the second half, Chiefs got the momentum on their side. In the fourth quarter alone, the Chiefs and their explosive offense scored twenty-four points. Twice, they had taken a lead late in the fourth quarter. But every time Chiefs thought the game was in their control, Tom Brady responded to them with impressive touchdown drives. Tom Brady erased the Chiefs' lead twice in the fourth quarter by making the right decisions in the clutch, and by making all the key throws. One of the balls he threw to Gronk on the sidelines, with Eric Berry all over Gronk, it was just so sweet to watch. Chiefs got the ball last in the regulation and went down to the field to kick a field goal to tie the game. Then came overtime. Pats won the toss and elected to receive the ball. Super Bowl wins against the Seahawks and the Falcons in 2014 and 2016 respectively, were two of Tom Brady's greatest victories of all-time. But the way he played the drive in overtime against the Kansas City Chiefs, was the most masterful drive he ever had in his career. Yes, that was the greatest drive by Tom Brady ever! Everyone watching the game knew, that if Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs got the ball back, they were gonna score and win the game. Tom Brady in that drive, on the road, in the freezing weather, converted not one, not two, but three third and longs. He faced three third and tens, and for all of them, he threw three deadly accurate passes to convert on those third downs. Two third down passes to Julian Edelman and one to Rob Gronkowski. Had Brady failed to complete in any of those third downs, Chiefs would have came to the field and easily scored a field goal or a touchdown to win the game. The drive ended with Rex Burkhead running in for a two-yard score, but if it wasn't for Tom Brady being the GOAT in that drive, that score would have never happened.

  For many of you, Brady became the greatest after Super Bowl game against the Falcons, for some he became the greatest after the Seahawks' Super Bowl, and for some, he became the greatest after this year's AFC Title game on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs. However, for me, he became the greatest of all time after he led the Patriots to a 12-4 record in 2013. That year, Tom Brady played the season without five of his six top pass catchers from 2012, including Wes Welker, who was the most dynamic slot receiver from 2007-2013. One of his six pass catchers who was still with the team was Rob Gronkowski. But Gronk played less than half of the season with the Patriots that year. He played only seven games. In 2013, Brady's top receivers were Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, Kenbrell Thompkins, and Austin Collie. Now please be aware that in 2013, Julian Edelman wasn't the same player as we know him today, and Danny Amendola came to the Patriots as a free agent who was always hurt prior to that season (he did miss four games in 2013 as well). For Thompkins and Collie, they aren't in the league anymore. Kenbrell Thompkins caught a game winner from Tom Brady against the New Orleans Saints in week six. Oh for the running game, Tom Brady had Stevan Ridley, Shane Vereen, and LeGarrette Blount (who played only seven games). The Patriots' defense wasn't that amazing as well as it finished tenth in scoring and twenty-sixth in total yards allowed. So with an okay defense, little to no running game, and with a brand new receiving core, Tom Brady managed to lead his team to a 12-4 record and took them to AFC Title game, where, they lost to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. 

  It was the year 2013 when Tom Brady inspired me to never give up and always fight through adversity. There is no better feeling than winning against all odds and proving your doubters wrong. Tom Brady, there might a ten-year-old, who just won a science fair in which he showed his hatred for you and in which he labeled you a cheater, you will always have this twenty-four year old as your fan and who will praise you until he goes to his grave. You are the best player and the best person in the world.

Thank You, Brady. Go win your sixth!