Long before Tebow-mania swept across North America, football fans had a fascination for another NFL quarterback with a no less compelling story.
With three Super Bowl titles and a supermodel wife, Tom Brady has been a player fans gravitated to for much of the past decade as the New England Patriots triggerman, with details of his glamorous life and glittering career filling newspapers, magazines and hours of Sunday pre-game shows.
However, when the Patriots host the Denver Broncos in Saturday’s AFC divisional playoff game, the seven-time Pro Bowler will concede the spotlight to Tim Tebow, the gridiron miracle worker who has caught the imagination of the US public.
Photo: AFP
Tebow hysteria hit new levels on Sunday when the unorthodox quarterback, whose shortcomings as an NFL passer have been well documented, tossed an 80-yard touchdown strike on the first play of an overtime win over defending AFC champions the Pittsburgh Steelers.
You can count Brady among those impressed by the Denver quarterback’s pluck, but he is not about to get swept up in the Tebow-mania.
“He [Tebow] is a good player and I think it’s a lot for the defense to prepare for,” Brady told Boston radio station WEEI on Monday. “It’s a very different style, but they’re very effective.”
Photo: Reuters
“I know a lot of people make it out to be one player on a lot of teams, but the reason why the Denver Broncos are in this position is their team as a whole,” Brady added.
Turning many doubters into believers, Tebow’s journey to becoming a starting NFL quarterback is a lesson in self-belief and motivation, but for those who might have forgotten, Brady’s journey to NFL fame and glory is no less inspiring.
Taken in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft as an after-thought by the Patriots, Brady’s NFL career is a rags-to-riches Hollywood tale, packed with stunning starlets, achievements and painful setbacks.
Brady began his professional career as New England’s fourth string quarterback holding a clipboard on the sidelines, but is likely to end it in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as one of the greatest ever to play the position.
He has amassed a regular season record of 124-35 and is 14-4 in the playoffs.
He has led his team to four Super Bowl appearances, helped guide the Patriots to a perfect 16-0 regular season in 2007 and this year became just the fourth quarterback to pass for 5,000 yards or more in a single campaign.
While Tebow arrived in the NFL as a celebrity, Heisman Trophy winner as the top US collegiate player and national champion, Brady spent his college years at Michigan University in relative obscurity and entered the NFL the same way.
“All those opportunities different guys get at different times, whether you are a first-round pick and you finally get your chance to play or you’re a late-round pick ... everyone has a different story to tell,” Brady said. “I was a young man, I was an 18-year-old kid who was a long way from home and battling through some challenging situations just in terms of the competition on a daily basis.”
“If I was getting one rep I was going to try and do the best I could with that one rep,” he said. “That helped my competitive spirit. I treat practice very seriously. If you can’t perform in practice; I don’t buy into this, I’ll just flip a switch on game day. It’s not the way it works, you have to prove it day in and day out.”
TOOTHLESS: Bologna never looked like finding a way back, and Antonio Conte and his substitutes were waiting to celebrate long before the final whistle SSC Napoli on Monday lifted the Italian Supercoppa with a 2-0 win over Bologna in Riyadh, David Neres netting both goals to earn the league champions a deserved victory over the toothless Coppa Italia winners. Neres opened the scoring with a stunning strike from distance six minutes before halftime and found the net again in the 57th minute when Bologna were caught trying to play out of defense. “We came here as champions of Italy, we wanted this trophy and we showed it with a great performance,” Napoli forward Matteo Politano told Mediaset. “We could have scored a few more goals, but
Backup quarterback Luke Weaver on Wednesday night threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Nick Cenacle with 10 seconds left, as the University of Hawaii rallied for a 35-31 comeback victory over the University of California, Berkeley in a thrilling Hawaii Bowl. Weaver entered the game after Micah Alejado took a hard hit on the previous play. With the Rainbow Warriors (9-4) in range for a tying field goal, coach Timmy Chang took a shot at the end zone, and Cenacle got between two defensive backs and made the contested catch. “How amazing is that?” Chang said. “It’s a program that is built
Fulham on Monday climbed away from the English Premier League relegation zone and left Nottingham Forest mired in the fight for survival after Raul Jimenez’s penalty sealed a 1-0 win. Marco Silva’s side started the day just two points above fourth-bottom Forest, but Jimenez’s first-half goal at Craven Cottage moved them 10 points clear of the bottom three. While Fulham’s relegation fears were eased heading into the Christmas schedule, Forest are just five points ahead of third-bottom West Ham United in the scrap to avoid crashing into the Championship. Forest had won six of their previous eight games in all competitions, with a
Barcelona wingers Raphinha and Lamine Yamal on Sunday guided the Catalan giants four points clear at the top of La Liga with a 2-0 win at 10-man Villarreal. Brazil international Raphinha won and converted an early penalty, before Villarreal’s Renato Veiga was sent off before halftime for a late lunge on teenager Yamal. The 18-year-old slotted home Barca’s second midway through the second half, as Hansi Flick’s side restored their advantage on Real Madrid and won an eighth consecutive league game. Villarreal are fourth after Atletico Madrid moved ahead of them with a comfortable 3-0 win at Girona earlier. “The attitude and mentality of
RSS