Whenever Bill Belichick gets around to watching a replay of Super Bowl LI the way coaches typically evaluate games, Tom Brady’s performance will be impossible for him to forget.
No, not that performance — not Brady completing 21 of 27 passes for 246 yards in the fourth quarter and overtime to engineer the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. The one in the first half, when Brady appeared feeble and pushing 40, especially when chasing Falcons cornerback Robert Alford on his way to an 82-yard interception return.
Coaches obsess over the bad plays more than the good ones. And at halftime of the Super Bowl, it was hard to know which descent at NRG Stadium would be more memorable, Brady’s or Lady Gaga’s.
The man behind a victory for the ages started the night simply looking aged.
Brady recovered in epic fashion to save this season, but what about next year after he turns 40 in August? Or the season after that? How long before Brady’s level of play drops as precipitously as it did during Sunday’s first two quarters?
For a coach as unsentimental as Belichick, those must be the hard questions he asks when considering the future of backup Jimmy Garoppolo — the ideal next quarterback for the Bears. No other option makes more sense at Halas Hall than pursuing Garoppolo, but suddenly it’s complicated because Belichick didn’t become the best football coach of the modern era by letting his heart rule his head.
Unfortunately for the Bears, it would be easy after Brady’s alarmingly mortal first half against the Falcons to see Belichick’s head decide not to trade Garoppolo after all. Those images of Brady acting his age on the field are hard to erase from a memory as photographic as Belichick’s.
Garoppolo is 25 — a year younger than Jay Cutler was when he joined the Bears in 2009. As much as Garoppolo represents hope and a fresh start for the Bears, regardless of the price, he also provides the Patriots insurance every Super Bowl contender seeks.
No way to sugarcoat it: Falcons choked in Super Bowl LI Brad Biggs
The story of the greatest rally in Super Bowl history and one of the greatest comebacks in the championship of a major sport cannot be told without the story of a remarkable choke job.
There’s no kind way to put it. No sugarcoating. No silver lining in Super Bowl LI. This was the Warriors blowing…
The story of the greatest rally in Super Bowl history and one of the greatest comebacks in the championship of a major sport cannot be told without the story of a remarkable choke job.
There’s no kind way to put it. No sugarcoating. No silver lining in Super Bowl LI. This was the Warriors blowing…
(Brad Biggs)
Sure, Brady has won more Super Bowls than any quarterback in NFL history, but Father Time’s record is even more impressive. There aren’t enough kale breakfasts or yoga classes to change that for Brady. Even Michael Jordan stopped playing basketball two months after his 40th birthday in 2003 — and he didn’t have angry, athletic men chasing him on third down. Age likely will make Brady prone to injury or inconsistency, perhaps both, sooner rather than later.
With the Falcons reinforcing that fact, keeping Garoppolo despite his contract expiring after 2017 seems most prudent for the Patriots. A leaguewide buzz surrounds Garoppolo based on more than just Hollywood good looks and charm. If Bears general manager Ryan Pace identifies quarterback as the top offseason priority, he won’t draft one with the third pick who would impact the organization as much as Garoppolo potentially could.
But now you wonder if even that would be enough for the Patriots or if they will pull their dream house of a quarterback off the market. As much as Belichick loves to accumulate draft picks, do you really think he would feel comfortable with Jacoby Brissett being one play from taking over a team thinking repeat?
Commercials, cockiness and the commish: Super Bowl 51 winners and losers. Teddy Greenstein
The Patriots won, the Falcons lost and Monday morning productivity sank to a new low. Now let’s dig a little deeper.
Winner: Lady Gaga, for her Cirque du Soleil audition. The Cubs announced Monday that she will headline an Aug. 25 show at Wrigley Field. She could sell out the ballpark for a week…
The Patriots won, the Falcons lost and Monday morning productivity sank to a new low. Now let’s dig a little deeper.
Winner: Lady Gaga, for her Cirque du Soleil audition. The Cubs announced Monday that she will headline an Aug. 25 show at Wrigley Field. She could sell out the ballpark for a week…
(Teddy Greenstein)
Additionally, if the emotion of the Super Bowl fools anyone into thinking Belichick never would bench Brady if he started to struggle next season, remember how much the Patriots coach eschews sentimentality. The list of players who can vouch for that is long.
The Pats dealt defensive end Richard Seymour, a five-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time Super Bowl champ, to the Raiders in 2009. They traded longtime offensive line fixture Logan Mankins to the Buccaneers days before the 2014 season and declined the option on defensive tackle Vince Wilfork after that season. They rewarded pass rusher Chandler Jones’ best season in 2015 by trading him to the Cardinals and unloaded Pro Bowl-caliber linebacker Jamie Collins to the Browns in October.
A pregame report Sunday by NFL.com speculated that the Patriots plan to extend Brady’s contract and believe "in his proclamation to play into his 40s." That was before Brady resembled an immobile, 40-something Vinny Testaverde, circa 2005, for two quarters.
A day later, several questions from Super Bowl LI floated around a football fan’s head: Isn’t a coin flip an unfair way to decide the Super Bowl if it means the NFL’s most valuable player never touches the football? How many Super Bowls would Brady and Belichick have won if the last two opposing offensive coordinators — Kyle Shanahan of the Falcons and Darrell Bevell of the Seahawks — would have run the ball late in the game instead of getting too cute? Is this the golden age of sports championship games? Was Cubs motivational speaker Jason Heyward anywhere near the Patriots locker room at halftime?
But from a provincial point of view, the Chicago perspective, the most relevant post-Super Bowl question was this: Why would someone as smart as Belichick risk trading a player who might help the Patriots repeat?
For the Bears’ sake, hope it’s one they can answer at a news conference next month. But the Super Bowl supplied a dose of reality.
dhaugh@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @DavidHaugh
Photos from Super Bowl LI on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017, at NRG Stadium in Houston.
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