Tom Brady could be hearing footsteps from the baby GOAT

Friday, February 4, 2022

No sooner had Tom Brady completed his protracted retirement process than stories emerged from those who know him that this will be just a one-year sabbatical, similar to Sean Payton stepping away from the New Orleans Saints.  The theory is that Brady feels the need to rejuvenate his 44-year-old body and have some family leave before returning for one more fling at pro football.  After all, he said last October, “I could literally play until I’m 50.”

I can’t help wondering if he will seek insurance to protect his status as Greatest of All Time.  He’s made no secret of valuing that legacy.  And already we can see possible competition emerging from the Cincinnati Bengals’ 25-year-old quarterback, the first pick in the 2020 draft.  Joe Burrow had a better rookie year than Brady and is now having a splashier sophomore season.  

Burrow completed 70.4% of his passes in the regular season, averaging an astonishing 8.9 yards per throw.  Burrow will play in the upcoming Super Bowl, as Brady did in his second season.  

Brady praised the Bengals’ star on the Let’s Go! podcast when Jim Gray asked about Burrow’s toughness.  “I love it.  There’s very few ways to display toughness from a quarterback because we don’t play at the line of scrimmage, we don’t block, we don’t tackle, we don’t have to go hit anybody.  

“But the way we show our toughness is to stand in the pocket and make throws.  Sometimes you get the shit knocked out of you and you gotta get up and go onto the next play.  You don’t want to show anyone that he really got me good on that.  

“What I love about Joe’s game is he gets knocked down, he gets up and he’s ready for the next play.  They can’t get this guy out of the game.”

In fact, Burrow is more willing than Brady was to absorb punishment.  Brady was known to scream at linemen who missed blocks that led to his being sacked.  Burrow would have shrugged.  

Playing behind a frightful offensive line, Burrow led the league this season in sacks, with 51.  He’s been sacked 12 times in the postseason, including nine times in the Bengals’ victory in Tennessee.  

Burrow’s arm is as strong as Brady’s, and it’s more accurate, and he’s more athletic than Brady.  As he showed in the AFC Championship Game against Kansas City, Burrow can scramble for first downs.  

But though Burrow was gifted with more physical talent than Brady, he has the same desire to work to improve himself.  Even before he sustained the knee injury that curtailed his rookie season, he began training to correct his one deficiency, the range and accuracy of the deep throw.  He not only strengthened his arm muscles but also the trunk that’s the foundation for launching his smart bombs.  And he  reworked his throwing mechanics.  

So when this season began, Burrow had a well-reconstructed knee. He reinvented himself as the most effective long-range passer in the league and one of its most effective leaders.

Like Brady and Patrick Mahomes, he leads on the sidelines as well as on the field, constantly exhorting his teammates and demonstrating confidence that’s contagious.  

Burrow is more charismatic than Brady, who was brusque in interviews following defeats and was rarely effusive even in victory.  He showed swagger with his teammates but not so much with the public.  Burrow, by contrast, enjoys engaging with reporters and fans.  He’s a fashionista in the Joe Namath-Cam Newton mold.  He’s candid, sometimes to a fault, as when he affirmed that he was wearing a string of real diamonds because “I make too much money to have fake ones.”

Brady’s character is slightly tainted by Deflategate; he was suspended four games  for plotting to reduce air pressure in footballs to make fumbles less likely.  But I give him props for pushing back on the concept that greed is good.  He did not grab all he could get, and that was a factor in his championships.  He left more money for his teammates, which meant he had better teammates, and they loved him for his generosity. 

We will see how Burrow handles contract issues in another year or two.  Will he be accused, as Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott have been, of trying to take far more than he deserves?

Perhaps we can call Burrow the baby GOAT.  It’s too much to project him to surpass Tom Brady, but the potential is there.  All he has to do is stay healthy and win the Lombardi Trophy seven times and keep from heaving it into a river.