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

Tom Brady for the New England Patriots, the Lion Rules.

I’m certainly not going to recount here Tom Brady’s exploits on behalf of the New England Patriots. There’s not enough space on the computer hard drive to fit all that in this article. But I want to provide a couple of anecdotes and maybe opinions and recollections of Brady’s early Patriots history.

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First, when Brady was drafted in 2000, nobody batted an eyelash about it. nobody that I recall. He was a 6th-round pick brought in to possibly compete for a back-up job to Drew Bledsoe. These days, they call it camp fodder.

As an avid draft enthusiast, I  purchased Mel Kiper’s Draft Guide. Almost every year. Here’s an excerpt from espn.com on what Mel had to say about Brady in his 2000 draft guide,

"Smart, experienced big-game signal-caller, getting very high grades in the efficiency department this past season."

The “big-game signal-caller” stands out to me. Mel hit that nail smack on the head. Big-game player.

So in coming to New England, Brady has no such idea that he was a camp player. When he bumped into Robert Kraft carrying a take-out pizza and introduced himself, it said all you need to know. He had the confidence. The brashness. The out-and-out Audacity to tell Mr. Kraft that he was the best decision the team had ever made.

Oh, brother do I love that attitude in Boston sports players. All-day long. Now keep in mind, the Patriots had drafted Drew Bledsoe No.1 overall (by Bill Parcells) in 1993.

In addition, Bledsoe had been a good quarterback for New England. He had even taken them to a Super Bowl, and lost. No problem for Tom Brady. In his first season, Brady had to contend with a lot of competition.

He had: Drew Bledsoe; John Friez; and Michael Bishop (a fan favorite) to contend with. No problem. Brady inexplicably, unbelievably and almost unfathomably made the team as a 4th quarterback. It’s not a usual occurrence, folks. Not at all.

I can remember at the time saying to myself, since I watched the roster formation carefully, “who the heck is this Brady?” I almost certainly went back to the Kiper write-up and saw that big-game player business. That’s what has stuck in my mind all these years. BIG-GAME-PLAYER.

The next year, Friez and Bishop were gone and Brady was the second quarterback. Then Mo Lewis came along, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So that’s my take on Tom Brady’s story. The story of a young man who wouldn’t accept being forth or even second-best. Would fight to the end to be the best. Would overcome all any obstacles in his way. The right way, through hard work and steely-eyed determination. I call it, “The Eye of the Tiger”.

It’s just a shame that he couldn’t have completed his football story here in New England. A doggone shame.