The question now is if Tom Brady recognizes just who he is. Did he really think an MVP quarterback from the city that just happens to be the opponent in America's single biggest sporting event, and who just happens to be dating a supermodel, could operate normally in a situation as loony as the New York City tabloid environment? Did he forget who the Patriots would be playing? Did he think the New York Post had gone out of business?
Whatever he was or wasn't thinking, he paid the price. What almost undoubtedly will turn out to be an irrelevant ankle owie became a gargantuan news story, the highlight of which was his picture on the front page of said Post with the walking boot on his right foot and the flowers in hand as he made his way back to Chez Gisele, all this accompanied by him being designated as a "Girlie Man" in the lower left hand corner of the page.
These things never happened to Sammy Baugh or Johnny Unitas, or Eli Manning, for that matter.
But this is Tom Brady, who long ago ceased to be just another good NFL quarterback, and who is a major part of Celebrity America. He is Crossover Man, for sure.
Understand that we wouldn't be having this conversation if the Patriots were playing anyone else. The Post would not have had a photog tailing Brady if the Patriots were playing the Packers. Brady's absence from practice last week would have been duly noted and explained as precautionary and inconsequential, and that would have been that. Oh, sure Coach Bill is always going to be Coach Bill. That's not going to change.
Asked for an innocuous "update" on Brady's ankle, the mentor was in fine form here, swatting that tepid query out of the park with just a half swing.
"We'll update the injury report on Wednesday when we're required to do that by the league," he cooed. "We're looking forward to it, too."
This, in case you don't know it, is Coach Bill's idea of podium humor. It's the second time he's employed the "looking forward to it" shtick this week. You think if his quarterback really had something seriously wrong with him he'd be quite so mirthful?
