New England Patriots: Tom Brady has the ‘Eye of the Tiger’, an NFL warrior

FOXBOROUGH, MA - DECEMBER 29: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots runs onto the field before a game against the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, MA - DECEMBER 29: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots runs onto the field before a game against the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium on December 29, 2019 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Getty Images) /
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Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /

Blaming former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for the team’s 2019 downfall is ludicrous.

It’s still awkward and inconceivable that I have to write “former” New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady. It’s going to take a while to absorb this travesty and get used to writing that abomination.

I’ve made my feelings clear that allowing your franchise’s all-time best player and one of the, if not THE greatest NFL football player of all time, to leave to play for another team is in a football sense, unforgivable.

The team’s owner and head of football operations made a huge blunder. No matter what Tom Brady does in Tampa Bay or anywhere else, there is no way he should have ever been allowed through indifference to leave New England. But enough of that.

This article is about what has defined the greatness of Tom Brady. It is heart. He has the heart of a lion. Even at the age of 43, he’s playing better than most of his competitors while nearly all of his contemporaries are well into sports retirement.

Commentators who don’t realize that the Patriots deficiencies in 2019 were not on No. 12 are lost. He had one wide receiver. One. And he had to play hurt much if not all year. He had no tight ends.

He had no running game to speak of. And no back who could extend a drive or punch it in for a touchdown in close. And his offensive line due to illness and injury was a shambles for a good part of the season. In short, he nothing on offense but Julian Edelman and James White. That’s it.

Even the dullest defensive coordinator could figure out that if you took those two players out of a play, no one else mattered for New England. Brady or no Brady.  But the detractors put the onus on No. 12.

All those deficiencies, plus a defense that folded against the better teams didn’t keep detractors from laying the blame on Brady. It even looks like the team’s hierarchy disrespected him to the point of his saying good-bye after 20 years.

These are the very people who above anyone else should have known better. They obviously didn’t and maybe had their own agendas other than the best interests of the team in mind.