Tom Brady is returning to the Super Bowl. For the tenth time. At 43 years old.
But this time he comes as the quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady and the Bucs took down the No. 1 Green Bay Packers by 31-26 in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field. They will now face Sunday’s AFC Championship Game winner – the current Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills – at Raymond James Stadium at Super Bowl LV.
The Bucs will become the first team in NFL history to play a Super Bowl in their own stadium, while Brady will become the oldest player in any position to play a Super Bowl.
The Bucs hadn’t been in the postseason for 13 years or had won a postseason game in almost two decades – when Brady’s reign with the New England Patriots had just begun. Still, Tampa Bay emerged as the free agency underdog that no one predicted when Brady decided to leave the Patriots in the off-season.
Many felt it was undoubtedly the greatest professional risk in Brady’s professional career to leave his longtime coach, Bill Belichick, and go to the Bucs. To make matters worse, Brady had no offseason to collaborate with coach Bruce Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and no preseason to resolve problems on a new system because of COVID-19. Critics pointed to his fight with the deep ball. They feared that their relationship with the Aryans was already falling apart.
Against the Packers, Brady completed 20 of 36 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns, with Leonard Fournette turning his way to fourth on the ground.
The defense, playing with the 347-pound nose, faces Vita Vea for the first time since week 5, fired quarterback Aaron Rodgers from the Packers five times – three from Shaq Barrett and two from Jason Pierre-Paul – and forced two turns. Nickelback Sean Murphy-Bunting eliminated Rodgers in the second quarter, and safety Jordan Whitehead forced a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Devin White.
But then Whitehead left the game with a shoulder injury, leaving the Bucs without their two initial security guards, when the Packers started to recover in the second half. Brady threw three interceptions in the second half – two for cornerback Jaire Alexander and one for the safety of Adrian Amos – while Rodgers launched touchdowns for tight end Robert Tonyan and wide receiver Davante Adams.
The Packers had a chance to tie the game, losing eight points with the ball on the Tampa Bay 8-yard line, but decided to kick a field goal on the fourth down with just over 2 minutes remaining. They never recovered the ball.
Brady now tries and does something that his childhood idol, Joe Montana, failed to do: go all the way with a new team in his first year. Montana came close, taking the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game in 1993, but lost to Bills 30-13.
So, we’re back in Tampa for Brady and the Bucs. As workers transformed the Raymond James Stadium in recent weeks – replacing the Buccaneers’ signage with the “Super Bowl LV” and Lombardi Trophy – they conveniently kept an exterior facade panel intact, in the southwest corner entrance: the image of Tom Brady Mike Evans.
Better to leave it at that. And maybe fire the cannons.