New England Patriots: For once, Tom Brady took the road more traveled

It’s no secret that Tom Brady‘s twenty-year career with the New England Patriots featured more accomplishments than one could possibly count. From six Super Bowl wins, to nine AFC Championships, to 17 AFC East division titles, Brady’s time in Foxboro just about had it all.

If there was one thing that Tom’s historic run in New England lacked, however, it was playoff victories away from the friendly confines of Gillette Stadium. In twenty years with the Patriots, Brady won just four road playoff games (not including Super Bowls), the same number as Mark Sanchez had during his brief career with the New York Jets.

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Those road playoff wins were largely stacked towards the beginning of his Patriots career, too. Over the course of his final 13 seasons in New England, Brady had just one playoff victory away from Gillette Stadium. Granted, it’s hard to win a lot of road playoff games when you rarely have to play them.

Due to the Patriots’ regular season dominance with Brady as their quarterback, they only had to play eight playoff games on the road over those two decades—which was actually fewer than the nine Super Bowls that they played in during that era.

But nevertheless, if there was one valid criticism of Brady’s tenure in New England, it was his mere 4-4 record in playoff games on the road.

But that all changed this year.

What changed for Tom Brady after leaving the New England Patriots

In his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady completely flipped the narrative. On their path to Super Bowl LV, the Bucs won three road playoff games—three times as many as Brady won over the course of his final thirteen years in New England, and just one shy of matching Tom’s career total. Granted, it should be worth noting that playing on the road was not nearly as difficult in 2020 as it was in previous seasons.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all games were played either inside empty stadiums or in front of a significantly reduced number of fans. So when Brady lead his team to victories in Washington, New Orleans, and Green Bay, none of those environments were nearly as hostile as, say, Indianapolis back in 2007.

But that shouldn’t diminish from what Brady accomplished this postseason. Prior to this past year, Brady had never even won three playoff games in a row to advance to the Super Bowl. (The Patriots had a first round bye in all nine of their Super Bowl appearances with Brady.)

Not only did he accomplish that this year, but he collected all three of those wins on the road. Of Brady’s ten career trips to the Super Bowl, this was by far his most difficult path.

For once, the GOAT took the road more traveled. (Quite literally, that is: the Buccaneers traveled nearly 6,000 miles round trip throughout the course of the postseason.) But in the end, the destination for Tom Brady was the same: on top of the podium, hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

Yet again.