Tom Brady Ruined Our Expectations
And Why Winning A Superbowl is Really Fucking Hard
By Tyler Faber
Winning the Superbowl is one of the most incredible accomplishments in all of sports. This is due to the unforgiving nature of the one and done format and how hard the salary cap makes it to keep players. Winning two is reserved for only the best of the best, and Eli Manning. Yet people in Green Bay and New Orleans see how talented they’ve been over the last 15 years and wonder how they only have one each. Why is one championship seen as such a disappointment?
Because of Tom Fucking Brady, that’s why. Since the NFL introduced free agency in 1993, only 6 starting quarterbacks have won more than one Superbowl. That motherfucker has won 6 and is going to his 10th. The free market makes it exceptionally hard to keep talented players after successful seasons because the price of keeping them sky rockets. That’s why every year, even without winning the Superbowl, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, New England and the Los Angeles Rams lose key pieces to other teams willing to overpay even if they don’t fit their schemes (we will call this the Dan Snyder effect). Not to mention the co-ordinators and position coaches that get poached to give hope to the hopeless.
But Tom Brady and Patriots won 6, so every time one of these franchises falls short of the goal their fan base is ready to hit the eject button (I’m not saying I’m immune to this either, I fire the entire Packers staff every time we give up a first down on the ground, especially to a running quarterback). It’s not enough to be a successful, well run franchise that’s in the mix every year; Everybody wants to be the Tom Brady & Bill Belichick lead Patriots, even though nobody has had that kind of prolonged success in the Superbowl era. Not the Steelers, Packers, 49ers, or Cowboys. Nobody.
The Eagles went to 4 straight conference championships, a Superbowl appearance and the leash still shortened on Andy Reid in Philly. Until Patrick Mahomes came along ole BBQ Andy’s reputation was a coach who couldn’t get it done in the playoffs and sucked at clock management. Now he’s finally cemented as the offensive innovator and quarterback guru he is. Everything had to break right though - right QB, right time, right situation. Mahomes may not have developed without Reid, and Reid maybe never wins a Superbowl without the Chiefs getting everything right on the margins (HOF TE drafted in the 3rd, fastest skill position group in the league, and a defense that’s just talented enough).
3 seasons after winning a Superbowl with Joe Flacco (!) Ravens fans were calling for Jon Harbaugh’s head. Do you understand how difficult it was to make that walking sack of potatoes look elite? And even now, despite the success they’ve had the last 2 seasons, if you put your ear to the ground in Baltimore you’ll hear whispers; Shouldn’t we get further in the playoffs with this team? Is Lamar good enough to get us over the hump?
Pretty soon these same whispers will come to places you’d never thought possible, like Cleveland and Buffalo. People who are currently ecstatic just to be invited to the dance will wonder why they’re not the belle of the ball. Winning leads to expectations, no matter how putrid and dysfunctional your franchise was.
Baltimore has ranked top 10 in points against 17 times since 1999, won 2 Superbowls. Green Bay has had Hall of Fame level QB play since 1992, won 2 Superbowls. The Colts went from Peyton Manning and his face / forehead combination to Andrew Luck and his voice / beard combination and only won 1. Ditto for Drew Brees and offensive mastermind Sean Payton, who’ve been together since 2006.
Remember this the next time you want to leave your coach at the airport after a disappointing playoff loss. We’ve got to be patient, because eventually Tom Brady will stop collecting his Infinity Stones and our teams might also get a chance to win a Superbowl. And when we do, cherish it, cause no matter how good they are, they might never do it again.
