Rich Eisen: Legacy Game For Brady
INDIANAPOLIS (CBS) - Tom Brady already has a Hall of Fame legacy cemented in football history, but that doesn't mean there won't be a lot on the line when he takes the field for the Patriots on Sunday evening.
NFL Network's Rich Eisen and Albert Breer chatted with Toucher & Rich on Wednesday morning on radio row. They both said that Brady was more of a role player during the previous three championships, whereas now, he's the No. 1 guy.
Eisen said a championship this year would, in a way, be like Kobe Bryant winning a championship without the aid of Shaquille O'Neal as a teammate.
"I really don't know if Brady looks at it that way, but this would be his 'without Shaq' championship," Eisen said. "Obviously he played a crucial, integral role [before]. They don't win three out of the four without him. But this is his team. This is basically him leading them, putting them on his back and taking them all the way to this game."
"Early in Tom's career, it wasn't all about him and he had a lot of help and a great defense. And now it's the reverse," Breer added. "Now the whole operation is built around Tom Brady. [It would be impressive] if he wins with two separate groups like this, two different waves of players."
Eisen added that none of those outside influences will factor into Brady's motivation to win on Sunday.
"I'm not going to sit here and say he's like [Joe] Montana or whatever," Eisen said.
"His legacy would be, 'I won three in my first four years, and then in year 10 I came back and I won it basically with me being the guy leading everybody.' But he's not sitting around thinking, 'I want to have a championship like that.' He's just thinking, 'I want to win every single snap.' Not game -- snap. I want to win every single snap. He is a perfectionist, and I love that about him."
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