Somehow Tom Brady Still Has Critics, And They’re More Asinine Than Ever

Photo via AP

You would think Tom Brady’s critics would be sick of the taste of crow by now. After the NFL dedicated its entire offseason to a futile attempt at wrecking his legacy over slightly deflated footballs, Brady has responded with an “F-U Tour” for the ages. Instead of being suspended for September, Brady won AFC Offensive Player of the Month honors. Comeuppance has been served.

And yet, the peanut gallery is still clamoring for seconds.

This week, it was ex-Ravens and Jets linebacker Bart Scott, a longtime Brady nemesis who’s parlayed his penchant for boorish smack talk into a cushy analyst gig with CBS Sports. In an interview with CBS Sports Radio Wednesday, Scott derided Brady’s toughness while praising… Ben Roethlisberger? 

“I respect Ben. Ben is a guy who can come sit at a table with any group on that team,” Scott said. “He can go sit with the D-linemen, ‘What up Ben?’ He’s like one of us. He had a defensive mentality. He has a tough guy mentality. There’s nothing tough about Tom Brady. The toughest thing about Tom Brady is his chin because it has the dimple in it, which is characteristic of most superheroes.”

Scott must not be aware of the fact that, since being named starting quarterback in 2001, the only time Brady has ever missed a game was 2008, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 1. Roethlisberger, conversely, has missed at least one start due to injury in seven of the last 11 seasons. He was suspended for the first four games of the 2010 campaign as well.

Try again, Bart.

Compared to former Redskins defensive end Dexter Manley, though, Scott’s ramblings almost seem borne of cogent thought. In an interview last week, Manley—who was thrown out of the NFL in 1991 after failing four drug tests—said he wouldn’t want Brady to play on his team. “I think Tom Brady can’t pick up a first down,” Manley said. “He has no athletic skills, he’s surrounded by good people, but the guy is in the toilet, in my opinion. In my opinion he’s in the toilet.”

And then there’s former quarterback and NFL analyst Chris Simms, who left Brady out of his top-five quarterback list.

“My big issue with Tom Brady really is, ever since he hurt his knee to start the season in 2008—of course he’s been awesome, I know that—but his mechanics changed, his ability to throw the ball down the field was not nearly as effective as he was before the knee [injury],” Simms said in a recent interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub.”

Since 2008—and stay with me here, Chris—Brady has thrown for 27,924 yards and 204 touchdown passes. Or, in other words, 24,807 more yards and 192 touchdown passes than you had in your footnote of an NFL career.

The truth is, Brady could find the end-zone a dozen times a game, and critics will still find a reason to be bearish on arguably the greatest quarterback of all-time. That’s fine. As if Brady’s rendition of Sherman’s March to the Sea wasn’t entertaining enough, watching some stammering analyst scarf down humble pie week after week is a delight all it’s own.