Tompa Bay: Tom Tom club

Euclis20

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Aug 3, 2004
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Planned on rooting for him, ended up rooting against him.

I can't really put my finger on why. I love the guy. Fully planned on being a Tampa guy this year. But when the game started, it slowly shifted and I found myself rooting for the Saints and I absolutely hate the Saints. I guess it's some bitterness? I also rooted against Ray Bourque when he left the Bruins for some unexplained reason.
Yeah, 100% this. I think ultimately I'm rooting for him to succeed, but I'd love for Tampa to crash and burn.

Related, watching Gronk is painful. He should've stayed retired, looking back on some of his injury quotes after he retired is horrifying now.
 

hube

New Member
Apr 4, 2010
229
I won't root against him, but at this point he's just another guy on a team I don't care about one way or the other.

It is nice not to have to tolerate the mystic-bro-Alex Guerrero-Tony Robbins-concussion water-pliability-no-sunburns stuff anymore.
 

djbayko

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Jul 18, 2005
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Because he's 43 and this isn't normal Brady.
I'm not saying he's not First Ballot, but the "Peyton is better" stuff will almost certainly crop back up. He EXCELLED when he went to a different team at the end of his career. Etc. etc.

Time will stop that, but until then - it'll be a topic.
I don't think it will. That's an insane argument at this point. I mean, if you mean that out of 350M people, some will bring it up, then sure. But it's nothing to be concerned about.
 

Leather

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Jul 18, 2005
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The Bourque comp doesn’t hold. Bourque was amazing for Boston for nearly 20 years, never won it all, and the Bs had no shot at a championship in his remaining shelf life. Trading him was a favor that was earned.

Brady leaving was a bit of a thumb in the eye of the Patriots. Not a big deal, but different.
 

Oppo

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Apr 5, 2009
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Rooting against
Team over players and regardless of the situation, he decided to leave (and take Gronk). He didn’t want to put in extra time in the off-season here and then complained about the results- that doesn’t fly unless you go out and win regardless. While he wasn’t the biggest reason for last year’s failures, his attitude sucked. Think the grass is greener? Hope he goes 0-16 or loses to BB in the Super Bowl.
Ultimately, I wish he had retired after the last SB win. Of course he has every right to keep playing just as we can discuss and dissect his decisions.
 
Apr 24, 2019
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Fully rooting for, always have been. 20 years, etc... plus I'm not sure why - not that this is true for all of the "againsts" - some fans are acting like he somehow spurned the Patriots. They clearly weren't willing to step up and wanted to move on. Why are some treating it like he dissed them? I can see that take re: Gronk, although I'm still rooting for him to dominate too - with decreasing confidence that that'll happen.
 

dynomite

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Not the final season he didn't. In his age 39 season Manning threw 9 TDs and 17 INTs and had a passer rating of 67.9.

In his age 39 season Brady threw 28 TDs and 2 INTs, with rating of 112.2.

The Manning argument is dead and buried for all time.
Agree with this. It felt the argument ended when Brady led the comeback against the Seahawks for his 4th, then it was buried forever after the comeback against the Falcons for his 5th. The insane performance against the Eagles followed by winning his 6th against the Rams was like Jordan’s Game 6 shot in ‘98 — the GOAT being the GOAT to no one’s surprise. There’s no intellectually honest argument against Brady, even during his "Jordan on the Wizards" phase.

As dj suggests above, you should expect to hear a little nonsense from professional hot takez pundits filling time on TV and radio, as well as embittered Colts/Broncos/Jets fans, but you can safely ignore them.

You know this because:

1) Over time the arguments I've heard have changed from “Manning/Rodgers/Brees is better than Brady” to the relatively pathetic “If they had been on the Patriots instead of Brady...”

2) When the wildly popular documentary about Michael Jordan came out this spring, and the entire sports world was watching it, one other athlete kept being referenced as worthy of such treatment, and people wondered when his would follow.

The question isn’t whether Brady is the best NFL player ever. It’s where he ranks among the best major American sport athletes ever, between Jordan, Ruth, Gretzky, Tiger, Ali/Robinson, Phelps, and the rest.
 

Pandemonium67

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Yeah, no one who really watches football will think TB excelled only because he was in BB's bubble. I mean, BB helped get the team to all those Superbowls, but when it was 28-3 with time ticking down, or when they were down 10 in the 4th against the Legion of Boom, or down 10 in the 4th to the Jags, it was TB throwing the passes.

They were football's best coach-QB pair ever, without question. That said, most would agree that BB alone, and TB alone, are arguably the best coach and QB ever.
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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Not the final season he didn't. In his age 39 season Manning threw 9 TDs and 17 INTs and had a passer rating of 67.9.

In his age 39 season Brady threw 28 TDs and 2 INTs, with rating of 112.2.

The Manning argument is dead and buried for all time.
He had a few shining years with a new team before he had the dud year. Tom coming out with a bad year definitely will bring out the haters.

He’s a Boston icon as much as any so I would like him to finish strong.
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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Agree with this. It felt the argument ended when Brady led the comeback against the Seahawks for his 4th, then it was buried forever after the comeback against the Falcons for his 5th. The insane performance against the Eagles followed by winning his 6th against the Rams was like Jordan’s Game 6 shot in ‘98 — the GOAT being the GOAT to no one’s surprise. There’s no intellectually honest argument against Brady, even during his "Jordan on the Wizards" phase.

As dj suggests above, you should expect to hear a little nonsense from professional hot takez pundits filling time on TV and radio, as well as embittered Colts/Broncos/Jets fans, but you can safely ignore them.

You know this because:

1) Over time the arguments I've heard have changed from “Manning/Rodgers/Brees is better than Brady” to the relatively pathetic “If they had been on the Patriots instead of Brady...”

2) When the wildly popular documentary about Michael Jordan came out this spring, and the entire sports world was watching it, one other athlete kept being referenced as worthy of such treatment, and people wondered when his would follow.

The question isn’t whether Brady is the best NFL player ever. It’s where he ranks among the best major American sport athletes ever, between Jordan, Ruth, Gretzky, Tiger, Ali/Robinson, Phelps, and the rest.
For sure. It’s more a pundit thing for the short term.

Regardless I want him to finish strong.
 

BusRaker

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Aug 11, 2006
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Voted other ... I thought he would end up a 10-15 ranked QB in the league this year, although it was obviously a bad (worst) year to be switching teams so I'm sort of satisfied with that sort of performance . I actually found myself rooting most of all for Gronk not to get his knees smashed in regardless of TB and TB's performances.
 

dynomite

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The two athletes that I'm most grateful to have watched the last 20 years were Brady and David Ortiz. They have made so many deposits in my bank of sports watching joy that rooting for them to fail is not close to an option.
Exactly how I feel. He spent 20 years not just playing for my favorite team but establishing himself as the greatest of all time, leading them to the history we all remember: 6 -- SIX! -- Super Bowl championships, unprecedented success, and a number of the most thrilling games in the history of American sports. All because he fell to my favorite team in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL Draft, when Bill Clinton was still President and "Erin Brockovich" was in theaters.

Just because Brady's wearing different laundry for the first time in two decades I'm not going to flip a switch and erase those memories. He's still the same guy that went sprawling in the end zone after spiking the ball in the blizzard against Oakland in '01, and brought us down the field in the 4th quarter of the '01 Super Bowl to win it when Madden told us to play for OT, and calmly engineered that winning drive in the '03 Super Bowl, and hit that pass to Moss in New York in '07 to clinch 16-0, and stepped up to avoid the rush in the '14 Super Bowl to hit Edelman down 10 points, took a horrifying beating in Denver in the '15 AFC Championship Game and came within a missed XP of forcing OT, engineered the most remarkable Super Bowl comeback ever in '16, won the '17 AFC Championship Game with a mangled hand, and marched down the field in OT in the '18 AFC Championship Game. Even after that insane paragraph, there are so many more moments that you're probably remembering that I didn't mention -- that incredible throw to Branch in the '04 AFC Championship Game when Brady apparently had the flu. Those regular season battles with Manning. The fact that every Sunday for 20 years, no matter where you lived in America, you likely had the opportunity to watch the Patriots because Brady was our QB and Belichick was our coach.

He did so, so, so many things that no one has ever done before and will almost certainly never do again.

So yeah, I'm rooting for Tom Brady. I don't love the snake oil selling and I would have recommended retiring after '16 and definitely after '18, but he's Tom Brady and I'm not. Best of all, the Bucs aren't playing the Pats for the foreseeable future. I hope Brady gets to go out on his terms and avoid long term injury.
 
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Ralphwiggum

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Jun 27, 2012
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For 100%. Tom Brady owes me nothing, but I feel like I owe him for all of the incredible moments for basically all of my 30s and 40s. Two fucking decades! I know this is just sports and it doesn’t really matter who roots for or against, but I could never root against. I think @Deathofthebambino said something about Brady shitting on his front steps every night and leaving him wet wipes. That’s where I am with Brady.

To clarify though while I hope Tampa does well, mostly I‘m rooting for him individually to play well and I’m less concerned with how Tampa does as a team.
 

snowmanny

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I felt like half the time he was here New England fans had to defend him against stupid crap. System quarterback, Paeyton is better, deflategate, cliff...crap, crap, crap, crap. It took until 28-3 for everyone to finally shut the f up.
I'll root for him as long as he drags himself out there.

And anyway, the only game I ever went to at Fenway where I did NOT root for the Red Sox was this one:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199707120.shtml
And Brady >>>>>>>>> Clemens.
 

BaseballJones

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Not to derail the thread, but @Trautwein's Degree made an interesting comment about Brady and Ortiz being the athletes he's most rooted for, gotten most joy from, in his life, and it got me thinking: what would people's personal Mount Rushmore be - top four athletes you've simply loved, for your own reason, and the sport doesn't matter. I.e., it doesn't have to be one hockey, one baseball, etc.

For me: Pedro, Ortiz, and Brady are the top three. Hard to say who #4 is though. Might be Andre Tippett or Tedy Bruschi.
 

SoxinSeattle

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Same thing happened to me as @cshea

I voted that I planned on rooting for him but ended up rooting against somewhat. I can't explain my feelings. I love TB12 and always will but there's something about seeing your ex succeed. Insecure jilted lover syndrome? Ultimately I want him to do well and think he will have an above average season if Arians learns how to coach.
 

lexrageorge

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Jul 31, 2007
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Yeah, Brady has earned a lifetime pass of free beer in Boston.

I can still recall watching the famous Bob Lobel special Sports Final episode with the recently retired Larry Bird joining Bobby Orr and Ted Williams. Tom Brady belongs in the same category as all of them.

I rooted for him; was still hoping he would pull off a 4th quarter comeback. Not ashamed of doing it. Wasn't surprised he struggled, either.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
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Jul 15, 2005
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Not to derail the thread, but @Trautwein's Degree made an interesting comment about Brady and Ortiz being the athletes he's most rooted for, gotten most joy from, in his life, and it got me thinking: what would people's personal Mount Rushmore be - top four athletes you've simply loved, for your own reason, and the sport doesn't matter. I.e., it doesn't have to be one hockey, one baseball, etc.

For me: Pedro, Ortiz, and Brady are the top three. Hard to say who #4 is though. Might be Andre Tippett or Tedy Bruschi.
New thread!
 

Ralphwiggum

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Jun 27, 2012
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Not to derail the thread, but @Trautwein's Degree made an interesting comment about Brady and Ortiz being the athletes he's most rooted for, gotten most joy from, in his life, and it got me thinking: what would people's personal Mount Rushmore be - top four athletes you've simply loved, for your own reason, and the sport doesn't matter. I.e., it doesn't have to be one hockey, one baseball, etc.

For me: Pedro, Ortiz, and Brady are the top three. Hard to say who #4 is though. Might be Andre Tippett or Tedy Bruschi.
For me those three and Larry Legend who was my childhood hero by a mile.
 

j44thor

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Aug 1, 2006
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I can't understand any resentment towards Brady, he was the ultimate team player never complaining about his contract despite rarely being paid as a top 5 QB. Kept himself in phenomenal playing shape and clearly dedicated himself to the team first. Had he gone to an AFC team I'd think differently but I'm all for him chasing stats for basically the 2nd time in 20yrs.
 

Ale Xander

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Oct 31, 2013
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Assuming you are talking about the poll results, the largest number up there right now is 47.

You seem like extra invested in being the guy who wants to shit all over Brady once the inevitable decline happens. Congrats on being that guy, I guess.
Undecideds is what matters
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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Oct 31, 2013
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Not to derail the thread, but @Trautwein's Degree made an interesting comment about Brady and Ortiz being the athletes he's most rooted for, gotten most joy from, in his life, and it got me thinking: what would people's personal Mount Rushmore be - top four athletes you've simply loved, for your own reason, and the sport doesn't matter. I.e., it doesn't have to be one hockey, one baseball, etc.

For me: Pedro, Ortiz, and Brady are the top three. Hard to say who #4 is though. Might be Andre Tippett or Tedy Bruschi.
Manny, Pedro, Ortiz, KG if Boston athletes. If all cities, it gets more difficult. Definitely Manny and KG though.
 

tmracht

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Aug 19, 2009
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I said unsure then at game time against. It's not a vehement against, I guess a lot of the narrative that Brady wasn't a top 5 QB because BB the GM kinda made me want to see Cam out perform Brady this season by the end of Week 1.

I absolutely still love all that Brady did for most of my young adult life from the Rams upset to 28-3 to the end. But now I can kinda enjoy every time he misses Evans and Arians dumps on him in public.
 

bsj

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Other. I want him to do well but then when I watch him it makes me feel sick. So then I sort of want him to not do well. But then I feel sick doing that too.
 

nattysez

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Sep 30, 2010
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I dislike Brady the person. The Trump stuff, his embrace of Guerrero (not all of the TB12 stuff is snake oil, but a lot is), his COVID truthering, the weird way he handled Deflategate, etc. Frankly, I think he's a dummy who is a football savant. I tolerated all his BS while he was a Patriot, but I find it easy to root against him now. I don't hate him or anything, but I won't shed a tear if he's a bust in Tompa.

Aside from guys who left the Sox for the MFY, I can't think of another Boston star who went elsewhere who I felt this way about.
 

GoJeff!

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I dislike Brady the person. The Trump stuff, his embrace of Guerrero (not all of the TB12 stuff is snake oil, but a lot is), his COVID truthering, the weird way he handled Deflategate, etc. Frankly, I think he's a dummy who is a football savant. I tolerated all his BS while he was a Patriot, but I find it easy to root against him now. I don't hate him or anything, but I won't shed a tear if he's a bust in Tompa.

Aside from guys who left the Sox for the MFY, I can't think of another Boston star who went elsewhere who I felt this way about.
I'm pretty much here as well.

I've dealt with a lot of pro athletes in my life, and most are assholes. Even given that, I get the sense that Brady is at the high end of that scale. I could tolerate him on the Pats, but have no reason to now.
 

SeoulSoxFan

I Want to Hit the World with Rocket Punch
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I'm pretty much here as well.

I've dealt with a lot of pro athletes in my life, and most are assholes. Even given that, I get the sense that Brady is at the high end of that scale. I could tolerate him on the Pats, but have no reason to now.
Politics aside, there have been just a handful of Boston superstar athletes who have been as humble, hard-working, (relatively) scandal-free, and successful as Brady.

I get that Brady has more than his share of odd quirks but he has never struck me as an "as*hole" or even a "jerk".

I also never felt that I had to "tolerate" Brady for the qualities listed above. In fact, I feel lucky for him to have been a Patriot all these years, similar to how I feel about Papi, Pedro, Neely, Bergeron, Pierce, McCourty, etc.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Nov 16, 2004
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Politics aside, there have been just a handful of Boston superstar athletes who have been as humble, hard-working, (relatively) scandal-free, and successful as Brady.

I get that Brady has more than his share of odd quirks but he has never struck me as an "as*hole" or even a "jerk".

I also never felt that I had to "tolerate" Brady for the qualities listed above. In fact, I feel lucky for him to have been a Patriot all these years, similar to how I feel about Papi, Pedro, Neely, Bergeron, Pierce, McCourty, etc.
Yeah I don’t get the jerk thing either. He’s an intense competitor which may play into it. Off the field he’s definitely he’s been far removed from reality, believes in some sketchy people and “science” and comes off as a know it all in terms of life coaching and healing but I never once thought he was a jerk.

I dont miss his late career Dan Marino impression he’s been doing for the last couple years and having a fit on the field and screaming at everyone constantly though.
 

Seels

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Jul 20, 2005
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Not to derail the thread, but @Trautwein's Degree made an interesting comment about Brady and Ortiz being the athletes he's most rooted for, gotten most joy from, in his life, and it got me thinking: what would people's personal Mount Rushmore be - top four athletes you've simply loved, for your own reason, and the sport doesn't matter. I.e., it doesn't have to be one hockey, one baseball, etc.

For me: Pedro, Ortiz, and Brady are the top three. Hard to say who #4 is though. Might be Andre Tippett or Tedy Bruschi.
Pedro Ortiz Brady Gronk, though Manny and Betts are both close.
 

amRadio

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Feb 7, 2019
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Brady on RBG via twitter:

Rest In Peace to a legend. A role model. A fighter for justice and equal rights. We should all aspire to live our lives as principled as RBG lead hers. We should all aim to bring a little more love to this world.
 

Jinhocho

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Not to derail the thread, but @Trautwein's Degree made an interesting comment about Brady and Ortiz being the athletes he's most rooted for, gotten most joy from, in his life, and it got me thinking: what would people's personal Mount Rushmore be - top four athletes you've simply loved, for your own reason, and the sport doesn't matter. I.e., it doesn't have to be one hockey, one baseball, etc.

For me: Pedro, Ortiz, and Brady are the top three. Hard to say who #4 is though. Might be Andre Tippett or Tedy Bruschi.
Tough one. Larry, Ortiz, and Brady. Either Jim Rice, McHale or Bruschi after that.
 

GoJeff!

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May 30, 2007
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Politics aside, there have been just a handful of Boston superstar athletes who have been as humble, hard-working, (relatively) scandal-free, and successful as Brady.

I get that Brady has more than his share of odd quirks but he has never struck me as an "as*hole" or even a "jerk".

I also never felt that I had to "tolerate" Brady for the qualities listed above. In fact, I feel lucky for him to have been a Patriot all these years, similar to how I feel about Papi, Pedro, Neely, Bergeron, Pierce, McCourty, etc.
I’m sorry for posting that. My take is pure conjecture and is a dickish thing to post on a Boston/Patriots board.