Tom Brady Injury Brings Out The Worst In Internet Commenting

BOSTON (CBS) -- A lot has been made about the overreaction to the Tom Brady knee scare from Wednesday afternoon. Some fans blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion, while other fans were contemplating the meaning of life while envisioning a season without Brady.

While opinions on the reaction may vary greatly, make no mistake about why everyone lost their minds. They went crazy because Tom Brady is the best.

He's 36 years old now, but he still is arguably the best quarterback in the league. He has competition in that category, of course, and arguments could be made for a handful of other quarterbacks playing right now. But not one of them has Brady's career resume, nor his place in football history. He is more than just any old football player, and the thought of him being absent for any stretch of time is enough to send even the most reasonable fan into a state of dismay.

Alas, the golden QB is A-OK, and he even wants to play in a mostly meaningless preseason game on Friday night. In retrospect, the reaction was over-the-top, but at the time, showing some concern was completely justified.

Nevertheless, there's something else about Brady that sets him apart from other athletes. He just has a way of bringing the stupid out of some commenters.

From comments under the story, to Facebook, to Twitter, to radio callers, whenever Brady is at the center of any story, people say things that are just the worst. "Evah since he married Gisele, he's done nuthin'!" they say on the radio after waiting 75 minutes on hold, ignoring his MVP Award, Comeback Player Of The Year Award, Offensive Player Of The Year Award and 49-15 record since his nuptials to the Brazilian supermodel. "He's a sawwwft pretty boy! Evah since he grew out his hair! "

So now that we know that Brady's OK, let's set the record straight on a few things. Below, in bold, are real live comments we received here from real live people, either on the site, on our Facebook page or to our Twitter account. They are presented as is, without spelling or grammatical corrections, before a brief explanation of why they're, well, stupid.

manning did not choke in playoffs losing a perfect season. my advise to pats release him his best days have3 long pa\ssed

To which Manning this person referred to is unclear, but neither Peyton nor Eli ever had a perfect season to lose in the playoffs. As for the best days of Brady being far in the past, he threw for the second-highest yardage total of his career last year. He led the Patriots to 12 wins, second-most in the league. He's thrown more than 30 touchdowns four times in his career, and three have come in the past three seasons. He's still doing OK.

Thanks for posting his injury. Now the other team has a target!! Dummies.

Our apologies for reporting the news. We'll never do it again. We promise.

Best thing to happen to this team in a while, hopefully his career is over

Somehow, for some reason, this creature exists in abundance in New England -- The Tom Brady hater. Maybe this person just likes to be different, to go against the crowd. Maybe this person loves to get people agitated, get their blood boiling, just for sport.

Whatever the case, these people are insane. No further explanation is really needed.

Billychoke fault why do u need duel practice with another team that ur playing in the regular season wouldn't of happen if it was pats vs pats 11 on 11

Freak accidents only happen when the Buccaneers are in town. Everyone knows this. Way to go, Billychoke!

Who cares if the big baby hurt himself!!! When he's on the field he falls down when someone is about to hit him!! "Don't hit me i's fragile"

I ... I just ... I don't know what to say about this one. Sometimes quarterbacks avoid contact in the interest of self-preservation. Getting knocked out by 250-pound linebackers charging at full speed can take its toll. I just ... OK.

he can't play hurt like a broken rib and hole in his lung like romo did. brady would cry

In his first season back from the torn knee, Brady played in all 16 games, plus the playoff game. That year, he didn't miss a game, despite playing with three broken ribs and a broken right ring finger. The first rib injury came in the preseason, when 350-pound behemoth  Albert Haynesworth crushed him in Washington, so it was something he dealt with all year, until he suffered an even worse rib injury in Week 13.  He had the third-best completion percentage of his career that year, despite missing the entire previous season and having broken bones all over.

I don't know if he cried, though. I suppose it's possible. But he did play hurt.

I swear he is made of glass #glassbrady

It is undeniably true that Brady once had long hair. You can look it up in a book if you don't believe me. But it's also true that he's as durable as they come. Since taking over as starter in 2001, he has started 199 of a possible 214 total games, only missing time when Bernard Pollard turned his knee into a bag of mush.

Not surprisingly, the hashtag #glassbrady has not yet caught on.

He was born the year I graduated from HS. Depressing!

Yikes! Sorry to hear that! Hey, 55 is the new 25!

Oh no! My God! Did the wonder boy get hurt?!? Did Gazelle run out on the field and cuddle him? Who gives a rats patoot.

That's actually pretty funny.  I might have to contact this person and ask for the rights to end every story with "Who gives a rat's patoot?"

Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here, or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.

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• NFL
• Tom Brady
• New England Patriots