Somehow, Tom Brady still is finding new ways to amaze us.
Brady, long considered the greatest quarterback in NFL history, has led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl in his first season with the organization after 20 years with the New England Patriots.
That, in and of itself, is impressive, but Skip Bayless believes the circumstances surrounding the QB’s current playoff run with Tampa Bay are unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
“If he does pull that off (win the Super Bowl), then on degree of difficulty, I think this is the greatest postseason run in the history of sports,” Bayless said Thursday on FOX Sports 1’s “Undisputed.” “Given where you started from: Because he took a team that was 7-9 (in 2019). There was pandemic. There was quarantine. There was no real offseason. There was zero preseason games. You get thrown into the fire in Game 1 against your arch rival at New Orleans. You don’t get a bye week until Week 13, after the heart of your schedule in which you’ve got to deal with New Orleans at home, when you got annihilated and humiliated, the Rams and obviously the Chiefs at home. And you lost all three games, and you flipped the script and the switch coming out of the bye week and you take off.”
The Bucs experienced both highs and lows during the regular season, ultimately finishing with an 11-5 record and the No. 5 seed in the NFC.
That meant a difficult postseason path to Super Bowl LV, but Brady and the Bucs have conquered every challenge placed in front of them so far, rattling off three straight road victories over the Washington Football Team, New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers.
All that stands in the way of Brady and his seventh Super Bowl ring are Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Look at what you just did: You just went through Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes,” Bayless said, putting into perspective what a Super Bowl LV win would mean for Brady. “When all is said and done, and the smoke clears on all their careers, will those three be in the top 10 all time? They will. All three of those guys.”
All top 10, sure. But there’s only one Brady. And his current success with the Bucs at age 43 is the stuff of legends.
