The minute Tom Brady’s final pass fell harmlessly to the Heinz Field turf Sunday, we all knew Monday would be filled with hot takes declaring the New England Patriots’ dynasty finally dead.
True to form, sports talk radio and debate shows filled the airways Monday by lobbing grenade after grenade at the 41-year-old quarterback and the Patriots after their 17-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
New England now has lost back-to-back games in December for the first time since 2002, but despite the constant talk of the Patriots’ demise, Brady is tuning out all the chatter.
“This is not the time to turn on the TV and listen to those types of things,” Brady told Jim Gray in his weekly Westwood One interview Monday. “Now’s the time to hunker down and focus on what our job is. There is nobody outside of our football building that’s going to help us win games. The reality is we know better than anyone what we need to do to win. That’s what all those TV stations are for, you know, to fill the time and to talk about sports and to give the fans what they want to hear, but, you know, that’s not going to help us win games. What’s going to help us win games is us playing better.
“I haven’t listened to anything, I really never listen to anything,” Brady continued. “I know what I need to do. I know what our offense needs to do and now it’s just a matter of getting out there and getting the job done.”
The Patriots now sit in third place in the AFC and likely will play on Wild Card Weekend for the first time since 2009. If this season ends the way that one did, with the No. 6 seed dusting them in Foxboro, then the whispers of Brady and the Patriots’ demise will get a whole lot louder.
