Our Obsession with Tom Brady

If there’s one story I’m tired of reading, it’s Tom Brady, quarterback extraordinaire.  If the drama about his future wasn’t bad enough, Patriot fans were worse.

They were addicted to this story, obsessing over every word and every report, whether it was from ESPN, a newspaper, or some other source that seemed to have the goods on the man and his coach, Bill Belichick.

The question that’s answered only speculatively – why would a six-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback – a league record – who appears to be in an excellent partnership with his coach, leave for a team in the basement?

As the father of two sullen teenage boys, I can tell you the last thing they want is advice.  Like a lot of kids, they see their old man as not just antiquated but extinct.

  

They only need their emancipation so they can show that every idea I provided, every lesson I taught and every philosophy I said will make them successful is wrong if not wholly false.

Brady’s relationship with Coach Belichick is likely the longest one he’s had since growing up with his father.  After 20 years – about the same amount of time kids are home full-time – it’s time to unshackle the chains.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the move to Bruce Arians, Tampa Bay’s head coach, will be seamless.  His new quarterback comes with a few demons, the largest being Coach Belichick, who, unlike his former protégé, has more Super Bowl victories than he does.  Eight to Tom’s six.

Will Tom be as good a student of Arians’ game as he was of Belichick’s?  Will he call an audible when given a direct order?  Will he fight Arians over who’s best-suited to lead the team?  In solving their quarterback problems, did Tampa Bay do the one thing the Chinese fret over – create another problem?  Arians should be concerned.

Then there’s the question of why a relatively healthy man, about to be 43, continues to put his physical well-being at risk?  Seriously, what is there left to do?  His immortality is assured.

Like a lot of married men, he’s got a career wife.  The word is she’s worth nearly $500 million, making Tom’s NFL multimillion-dollar earnings look like pennies.  This is a man not so much competing for another Super Bowl ring as a man fighting for his dignity.  

In a day and age when we obsess over washing our hands and create new and deceiving Orwellian terms like “social distancing,” the fact that we obsess over questions about Tom Brady, the Patriots, and Bill Belichick reminds me that our lives are empty.