Keller @ Large: No 'Real' Patriots Fan Will Wish Tom Brady Anything But The Best
FOXBORO (CBS) –There's always been more than a bit of little boy in Tom Brady.
I was helping out with coverage of the first Patriots Super Bowl celebration on a bitterly cold day in 2002 when I found myself in the bowels of Boston City Hall in a holding room where some of the players were milling around before heading onstage. So I went up to Brady and asked the most hard-hitting question I could think of: how does it feel to be a champion?
"Gosh," he said, shaking his head and smiling. "It's amazing. It's incredible. Gosh!"
Yes, gosh.
Brady seemed just as agog last year when he won his last Super Bowl as a Patriot. But this past season was obviously a bummer for him. His joy for the game went missing as the mediocrity of the team became clear. The smoothest communicator and most disciplined cheerleader in team history sulked at times, and was short with the media.
But only the most depressive fan will dwell on those memories. The highlights – now playing on a reel to comfort (torture?) Pats fans – are superb.
Another good memory – Brady's classy off-field behavior, not an easy record to compile given the intense scrutiny he endured. Any minor moments of discomfort – the out-of-wedlock child, the use of a fancy sports car paid for by a charity he was helping – were overwhelmed by his constant philanthropy and admirable attention to all family relationships.
And I was never more proud of him than when he fought odious NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fiercely over the absurd Deflategate "scandal."
It always seemed Brady cared about honor and doing the right thing just as much as he cared about money, not a sight you see every day.
No real Pats fan will wish Brady anything but the best – except, perhaps, when his next team plays us. But as a typical Boston sports fan who loves controversy in any form, I'm psyched to finally get an answer to the classic debate question: who was more responsible for the team's success, Brady or Belichick?
My guess: Belichick.
Discuss among yourselves.