Brady was going to be the Boston superstar athlete who'd get in and out of town without being touched by scandal or controversy. No police blotters. No mosh pit dives. No rollovers on 95 North on the way home from the Foxy Lady. No diva demonstrations. No steroids. No suspensions. No palimony suits. No taking money under the table while at Michigan. No losing his captaincy. No jealous rips from anonymous teammates. No kids left crying after being denied an autograph. No parking tickets. No disgruntled waiters with 5 percent tips.
Now he has taken a hit -- something far more bone-rattling than any blind-side tackle delivered by Dwight Freeney or Shawne Merriman. Our Tom was on the front page of both Boston newspapers yesterday. Four weeks and a day after his quest for a fourth Super Bowl crashed in the Hoosier State, Brady was a newsmaker for another reason.
The Globe went with, "Tom Brady's former girlfriend pregnant -- actress identifies Patriots QB as father." The ever-understated Herald screamed, "Quarterback sneak? Bridget's pregnant, and Tom's pals say he'll do the right thing (he just won't marry her!)"
There goes the future senatorial run against Curt Schilling. It might take him out of a few "Got Milk" ads, and the Pope will want him to go to confession next time he's in the Vatican. The red states and traditionalists certainly will disapprove.
But this is not the scandal it would have been 50 years ago. Brady's life is not over. He's not going to be Springsteen's character from "The River," who got "a union card and a wedding coat," after getting Mary pregnant. There's no indication that he's going to drag Bridget Moynahan onto the set of the Montel Williams show to submit to a DNA test.
A child born out of wedlock is no longer received with humiliation and shame. If you gathered present and former professional athletes who have fathered children with women they didn't marry, you could fill a fair-sized college gymnasium. And this Brady-Moynahan baby could be better-looking than Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt.
