Brad Johnson guides the
Bucs to their first world
championship, in
Super Bowl XXXVII.The Patriots draft another
quarterback in Round 6:
Kliff Kingsbury, now the
coach of the Cardinals.Byron Leftwich,
Tamp a Bay’s
current offensive
coordinator,
makes his first
NFL start.THAT BRADY WAS —AND IS—A
winning football player makes for something other than
a news f lash, especially for the men who recruited him
to Florida. Even so, both Arians and Licht marvel at the
full force of the Brady Aura.
Arians tells the story of watching Brady lead an early
informal workout with tight end O.J. Howard and wide
receiver Scotty Miller. Arians had recently told bothon the bench, smiled his smile and said
simply but firmly, “Jason, it’s going to be
a great day.” And it was.
Ask Brady about a singular moment
from the game and he strokes the light
stubble on his chin, trying to come up
with something specific. The defense
played well; the opponent did not. Brady
was at his Brady-est; his best plays didn’t
stand out in the way they do for other
star quarterbacks, but the ball always
got where it had to be with virtually no
mistakes. Unf lustered and unhurried, he
completed 21 of 29 and connected with
his old buddy, tight end Rob Gronkowski,
for two of his three touchdowns.
Tampa Bay, a three-point underdog in
its home stadium, prevailed, 31–9. In the
weeks before the game, Brady strenu-
ously—and probably wisely—avoided the
obvious story line, the one that traced
back to New England. Arians did not.
“Tom is playing for his teammates right
now,” Arians told SI in January. “I think
personally, too, he’s making a statement.
You know? It wasn’t all Coach Belichick.”
Brady recalled the postgame scene after the Patriots
won Super Bowl XLIX in 2015: “We had beaten Seattle
and we f lew home to Boston, and I came home to a house
that was f looding. I mean, literally, I had a broken pipe
and I had a waterfall coming down. And that night you
thank God. It’s so glorious the night after a Super Bowl.
[But] the reality? I got to fix this leak in my house.”
In a sense it was a healthy reminder that the real
world happens, even to Super Bowl MVPs, so it’s
important to savor the moments before the pipes burst.
Now it comes to him: The highlight of that night, of
Super Bowl LV, was when he brought his family—his wife,
model Gisele Bündchen; their kids, Ben, 12, and Vivian, 9;
and Jack, 14, Brady’s son with actor Bridget Moynahan—
onto the field to celebrate.
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LINKS TO WHAT’S NEXT
Among his off-field interests, Brady is an avid
golfer; he teamed up with Phil Mickelson ( far right)
to take on Rodgers (second from left) and
Bryson DeChambeau in a match in July.
SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR