With a win this weekend over the Baltimore Ravens at Gillette Stadium, Brady will earn the right to play in a fifth Super Bowl, a total matched in NFL history by only one other quarterback: John Elway. No one ever has played in six. No one has won more than four. If Brady can close his career the way he has closed so many games during his illustrious 12 seasons, he could earn his place as the single greatest quarterback ever to play the game.
With more Super Bowl appearances than Elway. With as many (or more) Super Bowl victories than Joe Montana. With more winning on his resume than anybody in the history of the game at a position unlike any other in all of professional sports.
For Brady, it all starts anew this week, with this game against a Ravens team that battered him in the playoffs only two short years ago. In that game, Brady went 23 of 42 for just 154 yards. He threw two touchdowns against three interceptions. He was sacked three times. Brady’s quarterback rating of 49.1 was the lowest he has posted in 20 career postseason games, the statistical nadir of Brady’s existence as the most successful quarterback of his era.
Another season then passed without the Patriots winning a postseason game, and so a little more sand trickled through the hourglass of what has been Brady’s career.
Now 15-5 in his postseason career as a starter, Brady still has a great deal to gain on Saturday. We focus on the winning in professional sports, and maybe we do that to a fault. Trent Dilfer has won as many Super Bowls as Peyton Manning. Dan Marino never won one at all. The real accomplishments sometimes come from merely being in contention, from being in position, from an astonishingly high level of consistency that makes championships an annual goal and expectation.
