Tom Brady rose to prominence with his last-minute heroics in his first Super Bowl against the Rams 17 years ago. How has he changed as a quarterback since then? Former Patriot players and coaches as well as Rams chime in.
ATLANTA — Playing against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl 17 years ago, Bill Belichick had a decision to make.
The Rams had tied the score late, kicked the ball off, and the Patriots returned it to their 17-yard-line with a little over a minute to go.
While TV analyst John Madden suggested the best move for the Patriots was to have 24-year-old quarterback Tom Brady take a knee and head for overtime, Belichick didn’t think that was his best chance.
Belichick knew the makeup of his young quarterback. There wasn’t a lot of time, but he trusted Brady to make enough plays in the two-minute drill to move them close enough for Adam Vinatieri to win the game.
Forget taking a knee. It was here that the legend of Brady was born.
“Playing in this game, you have the two best teams. You fight it out. One team wins. There’s no do-overs. There’s no retakes. (No) Hollywood scripts,” Brady said Thursday with respect to the Super Bowl. “This is live bullets. You have to get the job done under pressure.”
And that’s exactly what happened. A cool, calm, ice-water-in-his-veins Brady delivered the first of what has become many game-winning drives in his illustrious career.
Kurt Warner, the quarterback on the opposite sideline, didn’t know all that much about his opponent that day except he hailed from northern California, went to Michigan, and took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe Week 2 of that season.
“It was a great story about a young kid,” said Warner. “But my impression of him at the time was not that he was going to be the greatest quarterback to ever play.”
Like night and day
Brady was good in 2002, but certainly not in GOAT category. He showed signs of being a great quarterback, a strong leader, but not the quarterback we’re seeing now in 2019.
“How has he changed? It’s night and day. At that point in time, he was asked to manage games, not make mistakes, make a few plays, but we were going to win other ways,” Warner said when asked the difference between Brady now and then. “Now, they ask him to do anything and everything. Sometimes, he has to throw it 50 times. Sometimes, he just has to make that one drive. He’s just so in command now of whatever they ask him to do. He can win and carry you with his right arm. He was not that guy early in his career, as most young guys aren’t. But now, he’s as good as anybody.”
In that first Super Bowl, Brady was 16-of-27 for 145 yards and a touchdown. Six of those completions came during the game-winning drive as he went 6-for-8 for 53 yards, the big play a 23-yard completion to Troy Brown.
“I think the only thing that might be the same now, as it was back then, was his confidence in himself,” said Brown, “and his positive thinking about getting through every situation.
