It’s a neat, tidy narrative. All it needs is Tom Brady to provide the perfect ending.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell bans Brady for four games for his part in “Deflategate,” and Brady returns more motivated than ever. Brady, already an all-time great quarterback, delivers one of his finest seasons at age 39. The Patriots lose once in 12 regular-season games with Brady under center and win the AFC championship.
Then, for the crowning achievement, Brady beats the Falcons on Sunday for his record fifth Super Bowl title. Afterward, Brady accepts the championship trophy from Goodell, who hadn’t shown up in Foxborough, Mass., when the Patriots beat the Steelers for the AFC championship two weekends ago.
It would be the final chapter in a saga of redemption and, perhaps, revenge. One problem: Brady hasn’t played along with that plot all season, at least not publicly, and he’s not going to help feed that storyline now that the Patriots are at the Super Bowl.
“I’ve moved on,” Brady said this week. “I focus on positive things in my life. I’m not worried about postgame (with Goodell) or anything like that.”
There is some circumstantial evidence that Brady would gain some personal satisfaction from taking the trophy from Goodell.
In November, Brady starred in a TV advertisement for a national shoe company in which he indirectly (and comically) suggested that he was punished for something that didn’t happen. That’s the closest Brady has come to publicly addressing the issue since he was suspended.
By contrast Brady’s father, Tom Sr., hasn’t held back.
The father said in a TV interview last week that Goodell “doesn’t belong on any stage that Tom Brady is on” because of his lack of ethics. Tom Sr. said Goodell’s behavior in the matter was “beyond reprehensible” and that the commissioner had to “lie his way out” from the scandal.
But the Patriots quarterback said this week that his father’s feelings are his own. And it turns out another personal issue may be on Brady’s mind more than his suspension: CSNNE reported Tuesday that Brady’s mother, Galynn, has been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the past 18 months.
That family crisis may explain why Brady appeared to tear up while talking about his father during Monday’s media event. The next day, at the Patriots team hotel, Brady said he got emotional because his parents haven’t been to many games this year.
“You just have different things that your family goes through in the course of your life, and it’s been a challenging year for my family, just for some personal reasons,’’ Brady said, before the report about his mother’s illness. “It’ll be nice to have everyone here watching us this weekend. My mom and dad have been so supportive my entire life, and it’s nice to be here to show them and try to make them proud.’’
Brady said his mother hasn’t attended a Patriots game this season and his father has been to one, which the quarterback said is “very atypical” for his parents.
“They are going to be here this weekend, which I am excited about,” Brady said. “So it will be nice to see everybody. I have a big group coming.”
Brady’s family will be among the people watching to see if he can become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls. Doing so would add to his already-great legacy and maybe wash away some of the stain left on his reputation by Deflategate.
The NFL’s investigation concluded that it was “more probable than not” that Brady played a role in deflating game footballs to levels not allowed by the rules. The NFL fined the Patriots $1 million and docked them two draft picks.
Goodell suspended Brady for four games. Brady appealed in federal court and lost before he eventually dropped the case.
The way the Patriots see it, the episode should not have blemished Brady’s reputation. Franchise owner Robert Kraft has been outspoken in his defense of Brady and criticisms of Goodell, the commissioner he had once supported.
“Everyone wants to protect their family,” Kraft said this week. “I think our family was involved, or accused of being involved, in something that was mishandled and inappropriate (and) became a big distraction. Leadership is about stepping up when it’s the appropriate time and then making sure everyone knows that we’re all on the same page. Sometimes when you’re in complicated situations in a business, people start pointing fingers, and we want to assure everyone that we’re all together.”
The Patriots survived without Brady. They won three of four games while starting two different quarterbacks.
“The team was 3-1 at that point, so I didn’t want to screw it up,” Brady said.
The Patriots have thrived since Brady’s return. He posted the third-best quarterback rating of his career (112.2) while throwing 28 touchdowns against two interceptions. Brady’s interception rate (0.5 percent) was the best of his career.
If Deflategate provided any additional motivation, Brady isn’t saying.
“I always have motivation,” he said. “There was a time when the Patriots weren’t a very good team and no one gave us a lot of respect. Teammates like Rodney (Harrison) that always said, ‘They don’t respect us! They don’t respect us!’ I think that was always a good metric for us.
“I think feeling that way and feeling like you need to earn other people’s respect is a great source of motivation for me. I think my main motivation is representing my family, representing my team, representing my teammates, representing our fans.”
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