After another Super Bowl loss to the Giants, the natives in Boston are getting restless.Everywhere you look, there are people in New England expressing their disgust at the Patriots and, in particular, Tom Brady. The quarterback who could do no wrong for so long is now getting a reaction usually reserved for the Bill Buckners and Grady Littles of the world, a turn of events that, isn't  surprising in the kneejerk world of sports. Being predictable doesn't make it any less wrongheaded, though.

That's not to say that Brady was perfect on Sunday night. The intentional grounding for a safety on the first offensive play was a tremendous blunder, albeit one Brady probably thought he could get away with given the inconsistent application of that rule, and he wasn't as accurate as usual over the course of the night. You could add his interception if you like, although the potential rewards of that play (long gain, pass interference, touchdown) outweighed the risk of giving up the ball deep in Giants territory.

While we're mostly sticking to actual football here, we will concede that the reaction to Brady's night is not helped in the least by the fact that his wife's comments have been interjected into the discussion. The Gisele issue is tied into the reaction, but her lack of tact has nothing to do with what actually happened on the field.

Above all else, Brady is catching hell because he missed on his biggest pass of the night. That would be the one that Wes Welker couldn't reel in while wide open on second down with under five minutes to play. Welker still should have made the catch, he said as much himself, but Brady didn't nail a pass that he has nailed hundreds of times in his career.

Eli Manning did nail his pass to Mario Manningham on the next drive and the rest is history. And, apparently, that is enough to convince some people that Brady is ready for the glue factory. Believing that takes an incredibly short memory and narrow viewpoint of the game.

The Giants didn't just win because of that pass to Manningham. They won because the Patriots defense couldn't make a play after that catch. They won because two fumbles bounced back into their possession. They won because a Patriots recovery of a third fumble was wiped out because the defense couldn't see their way clear to playing with less than 12 players. They won because Deion Branch dropped a pass on the first play of the final drive with room to run and because Aaron Hernandez dropped a pass on the next play.

In short, it was a slim margin of defeat and any number of players could have turned things in the Patriots' favor. Brady was one of them and he could have played better, but he wasn't the only one guilty of coming up short. The same is true of 2008, a game that's now being tied to this one to diminish Brady's accomplishments. In that game, Asante Samuel's dropped interception and more good luck on fumbles helped the Giants block the Patriots' undefeated season.

The Patriots fell agonizingly short, but it shouldn't be forgotten that they wouldn't have been that close if not for Brady hitting 16 straight passes, a Super Bowl record, on two sizzling touchdown drives. And they wouldn't have sniffed the Super Bowl without Brady having one of his finest seasons and leading them to Indianapolis despite playing without a sturdy defense, a capable deep threat or much of a running game.

Yet the Patriots not only made it to the Super Bowl, they made it far enough to lose the Super Bowl in the final minute. That's two Super Bowl losses in the final minute in a sport where the line between winning and losing is often thinner than one of Mrs. Brady's modeling pals. Measure that against a decade of dizzying success, including three Super Bowl rings, and it is hard to understand the overwhelming negativity coming from Boston.

No one should weep too much for Brady. He almost certainly got too much credit for the Super Bowl wins so it is natural that he is going to get too much blame when the team loses. Such is life for quarterbacks in the NFL, and nothing will counteract that.

Results of games are black and white. The reasons for those results are usually gray. Super Bowl XLVI was full of gray, and that perspective shouldn't be lost in the rush to assign blame.

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Supermodel Gisele Bündchen, wife of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, used a curse word in describing his team's pass receivers moments after the Pats' 21-17 loss to the Giants in Sunday's Super Bowl XLVI.

After excited Giants fans teased her on her way from the VIP suites at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis -- with one yelling that Giants quarterback "Eli [Manning] owns your husband!" -- Bündchen stood in a knot of people waiting at the elevator and muttered, "I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times. My husband cannot ---- throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time."

Receivers Wes Welker, Deion Branch and Aaron Hernandez all dropped passes, and Welker topped Internet searches for dropping a pivotal fourth-quarter pass. Bündchen's comment, captured on a video shot for the CBS/Paramount syndicated entertainment-news show "The Insider," was posted Sunday night on the program's website.

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Tom Brady sat facing his locker, his head down and draped in a white towel, staring at the space between his cleats. He was in full uniform. He was in full thought. There were the plays that hadn’t been made. There were the opportunities not seized. There was the Super Bowl that had slipped away, 21-17 to the New York Giants. Again, the Giants. Again.

It was 10:04 p.m. The minutes ticked by and Brady didn’t move. Across the Patriots’ locker room there was dejection and depression, hushed whispers and thousand-yard stares. This is the pain of almost having everything. This was the hurt of winding up with nothing. All the money these guys make, all the glory they receive, it does nothing in times like this, the losing locker room after the biggest of games.

Nobody was taking it quite like Brady though. Others slipped out of their uniforms or headed to the media interview area in full dress. Some shuffled off to the showers or patted each other on the back. Not Brady. He just kept staring at the floor. His longtime physical therapist, Alex Guerrero, sat in an empty locker next to him and tried to offer words of comfort. They had no impact. Brady never moved.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Brady [stats] doesn’t think back to his time at Michigan much. This week, especially, he’s too consumed with preparing for a Giants defense determined to make his life miserable to focus on anything else.

But Brady said in the buildup for Super Bowl XLVI last week he wouldn’t be where he is today — a win away from joining Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings — without his five seasons as a Wolverine.

“I think I was very fortunate in college to go through some pretty stiff competition,” Brady said. “A lot of the lessons that I learned when I was 18, 19 years old have served me well when I was 23 and 24. This game is about competition. You have to compete every single day in practice, because if you don’t, you’re not going to be around very long.”Brady’s path from contentious college starter to NFL icon is well documented. He went 20-5 as a starter at Michigan, but split time as a senior with local schoolboy legend Drew Henson.

In the 2000 NFL draft, Brady fell to the sixth round, pick No. 199 overall, and was the seventh quarterback taken. The luminaries in front of him: Chad Pennington [stats], Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger and Spergon Wynn.

That group served to motivate Brady, who barely played as a rookie and has barely come off the field since. Drew Bledsoe was injured in the second game of the 2001 season, and Brady started the final 14 games. He led the Patriots [team stats] to a 44-13 victory in his first career start and their first Super Bowl later that year, 20-17, over the St. Louis Rams.

In the 10 years since, Brady has two more Super Bowl rings — the Patriots won back-to-back titles in 2004- 05 over the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles — and two NFL MVP awards. But he also missed most of the 2008 season with a knee injury and experienced the sting of losing a Super Bowl, four years ago to the same Giants he’ll face today.

“I don’t think it’s just that 2000 NFL draft (that motivates me),” Brady said. “What you’re always trying to do as an athlete is prove it to yourself. You go through a college career and think you do a decent job — not that you get overlooked, it’s just that there are other guys who they feel can do a better job — so you just keep working hard, you just keep believing in yourself and looking for your opportunity.”

Pressure cooker
Brady was at the top of the NFL when the Patriots and Giants squared off in the Arizona desert four years ago and New York had the perfect blueprint to beat him. They harassed him with their defensive line, rolled up five sacks and held New England’s high-powered offense to 14 points, the second-lowest total by any Super Bowl team in the p ast 10 years. Brady suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament seven months later, and some Giants say they’ve seen a different quarterback in the four years since.

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Can the Patriots’ offensive line neutralize the Giants’ fierce pass rush? Will Rob Gronkowski be as effective on a bad ankle? Will the Patriots’ young secondary hold its own against the likes of Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz?

All good questions, all important factors when it comes to breaking down Super Bowl XLVI. But at the end of the day this game is Tom Brady’s to lose.

New York fans might take my saying that as yet another media member focusing on Brady and the Patriots when “Big Blue” has earned the right to be the focal point of this game. But that’s not my intent.

Everything points to another New York victory on Sunday. The surest way to beat an elite quarterback is to pressure him with your front four and drop everyone else into coverage. The Giants have four defensive ends that they can line up at the same time in passing situations, which gives them a distinct advantage that no other team in the league possesses. And thanks to Cruz, Nicks, Eli Manning and Mario Manningham, the Giants also have the most underrated passing attack in the league.

Yes, the Giants should be the focal point in this matchup. We should be discussing whether or not New England can beat New York instead of the other way around. After all, the Giants ruined the Patriots’ perfect season back in 2008 and went on the road during the 2011 regular season and beat them again. When you really break down the matchup, it’s a wonder why New England is even favored.

No, this isn’t another Patriots-centric article. What I’m saying is that if Tom Brady isn’t Tom Brady on Sunday then the Patriots will lose because quite frankly, they’re a rather ordinary team when he’s not superhuman.

The Pats didn’t exactly face a gauntlet of quality opponents in the second half of the season, which certainly contributed to their 8-0 finish. While the Jets, Eagles and Broncos all finished with 8-8 records, respectively, the Patriots didn’t play one team with a winning record in their final eight games. The last time they faced consecutive opponents with a win percentage over .500 was in back-to-back losses versus the Steelers (Week 8) and Giants (Week 9).

Want to know how Brady fared in those two games? He completed 52 of his 84 pass attempts for 540 yards, with four touchdowns and two interceptions. He certainly played well enough for his team to win but the Patriots didn’t, and you could make a case that Brady didn’t do enough despite his strong numbers.

Is that fair? Certainly not. The Patriots rely on Brady too much when you think about it. His position is the most important on the field and he’s certainly compensated for his play with both fame and fortune. But this isn’t the best team that Bill Belichick has constructed during his time in Foxboro and yet the Patriots have yet another opportunity to hoist the Lombardi Trophy with a win on Sunday. Guys like Gronkowski, Wes Welker, Matt Light, Brian Waters, Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and Rob Ninkovich all deserve credit for New England’s success this season. But I go back to those two mid-season losses to Pittsburgh and New York and wonder if the Pats can win this weekend if Brady is anything but great.

Granted, the Patriots did beat the Ravens two weeks ago when Brady was lackluster, but Lee Evans and Billy Cundiff also cost Baltimore a golden opportunity at victory. But I don’t expect New England to pull off a similar feat if Brady doesn’t put together one of those this-guy-is-unreal performances. I’m talking about one of those 370-yard, three-touchdown games where the defense couldn’t stop him from reaching the end zone in the fourth quarter if they were allowed to play with 30 men.

Anything less and I fully expect a solid New York team to win its second title in just five years.

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It could be better for Tom Brady. He could be playing for the 49ers, his team when he was a kid. Such a Niners fan. “I’d run around the parking lot at Candlestick in my Joe Montana jersey or Steve Young jersey,” Brady said. “Throwing the ball. There were some great times.”

These aren’t bad times. On Sunday, for a fifth time, Brady — the one known as “Tommy” when he was growing up in San Mateo — will be playing in a Super Bowl. That it will be for the New England Patriots is perhaps the only part of the story he would amend.

Twelve years ago, and Tom Brady Jr., quarterback from the University of Michigan, graduate of Serra High School, keeps slipping in the NFL draft. First round. Second round. Third round, the Niners take ... no, not young Mr. Brady, but Giovanni Carmazzi.

Tom is brokenhearted. Carmazzi, also a Californian (from Sacramento) is elated. He never plays a down. Now he’s a farmer north of San Francisco. Brady is a superstar and a celebrity, and with a win against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, he would equal the record of four victories that Montana shares with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Terry Bradshaw.

Steve Mariucci, the 49ers’ coach in 2000, now a commentator for NFL Network, has said the Niners only had 45 minutes to see Brady in a workout. They weren’t impressed with his delivery. What they ignored was his presence, his ability to respond to a situation.

The situation he’s in now, at age 34, seems ideal. He sat in his little booth Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium and responded to questions the way he would to a blitz, knowing what was expected. Not exactly painting by numbers, but very close.

“Look at this,” he said, motioning toward the two dozen cameras and four dozen reporters spread in front of him. “You never take this for granted. It’s pretty cool to think as a kid growing up that a bunch of young people would come to watch us play a football game.”

Tom Brady Sr., an insurance man, had four season tickets to Niners games. His wife, Galynn, one of the couple’s three daughters — each older than Tom — and Tom would attend home games, the girls rotating.

“We’d sit on the press box side at Candlestick,” Brady said, “about the goal line, about 10 rows from the top. There was always the same group of people sitting around us. There were some great times rooting for the 49ers then. They were winning so many games.

“It was really great growing up in the Bay Area at that time and watching two of the greatest quarterbacks who ever played. I began to love football. Football is such a big part of that community out there, and certainly because the 49ers were winning so much.”

Winning helps, but the 49ers, the hometown team, the one which was created in 1946 in San Francisco and didn’t move from New York or Philadelphia, always held a special place in the hearts and minds of Northern California. When the Super Bowls began to arrive in the 1980s, a dream was realized.

Now Brady, the 199th player taken in the 2000 draft, is trying to realize his own dream. Unfortunately, it’s not with the 49ers.

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Just six days away from the chance to claim his fourth Super Bowl, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady knows he is a marked man. The 34-year-old, who was taken with the 199th selection in the 2000 NFL draft, already has a hat-trick of Super Bowl rings after leading his team to victories over St Louis (2002), Carolina (2004) and Philadelphia (2005).

But Monday's clash with the New York Giants will be a monumental clash for Brady, giving him the chance to gain revenge over his opposite number Eli Manning, who was instrumental in the Giants' 17-14 win over the Pats in 2008.

In their only other meeting this season, the Giants defeated the Patriots 24-20 on the road on November 6, and Brady knows his team will have to do it the hard way at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

'We played them a while ago, I think they've changed a little bit,' Brady said. 'They're certainly as good as anyone we played all year. So we've got our work cut out for us.'Brady knows he will have a target on his back on back, but said that comes with the territory. 'I think, as a quarterback, you understand that you can't sit there and hold the ball all day,' he said.

'You better find someone and get rid of it.' 'They're coming and you don't want to just sit there and sort things out and, certainly, I'm not going to be able to run away from them.'

'So I've got to be able to throw the ball quickly and try to find an open guy and get it into the hands really of someone who can actually do something good with it - which, you know, my skill players really have done all season.' Brady has been coached by Bill Belichick for his entire professional career, and the quarterback said their relationship is one of mutual respect.

'He is very tough,' Brady said of his 59-year-old mentor. 'He says to us from time to time he understands it's a demanding place to play and it's not really meant for everybody, but he appreciates all the players' willingness to commit themselves to, really, a goal that's greater than the individual.'

'And I think that's why we're sitting here today - because we really have a great group of players who have worked extremely hard and committed themselves to each other to reach this point.'

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While Tom Brady is chasing Super Bowl history, the New York Giants are going to be chasing him all over the gridiron. How well the New England Patriots star quarterback eludes the pursuers and throws to his receivers will likely play a major role in whether or not Brady can match an all-time record with his fourth Super Bowl victory.

Brady will equal the Super Bowl quarterback record five starts of former Denver star John Elway. But can he equal the record of four victories of boyhood idol Joe Montana of San Francisco and Pittsburgh legend Terry Bradshaw?

"I haven't given much thought to any records. This game is more about the challenge the Giants give us," Brady said. "It all comes down to preparation and going out there with confidence. We've had a couple of good days of practice trying to understand the Giants' defense. We've got to work hard on that this week."The Patriots will face the Giants in Super Bowl 46 in a domed stadium at chilly Indianapolis, a rematch of the 2008 championship spectacle in which New York edged New England to deny the Patriots an unbeaten title run. "I remember we lost and that still burns some of us," Patriots blocker Logan Mankins said. "We can learn a lot from that."

New England won the Super Bowl in 2002, 2004 and 2005, all under Brady's direction, just as the 2008 loss was, thanks in part to a Giants defensive unit that kept Brady under pressure throughout the game.
"It has been a strength of their team for as long as I can remember," Brady said. "They really go after the passer.

"Any time you can limit the quarterback the time it takes to make accurate reads and accurate throws, it's much more challenging."Brady threw for a personal-best 5,235 yards and 39 touchdowns this season, making the Patriots the top yardage gainers in American football by quickly analyzing and picking apart defensive schemes.
New York will counter with pass rushers Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora, whose job will be to make certain Brady does not have enough time to find his receivers.

"Justin Tuck is as good as they come. Osi week in and week out can ruin a game for an offense," Brady said. "You understand you can't hold the ball all day. Certainly I'm not going to be able to outrun them.
"I've got to find somebody quickly and get the ball to somebody who can do something with it. You're not going to have a lot of time back there."Mankins, whose task as a guard will be to protect Brady from the pass rush, accepts the challenge he faces.

"They have the personnel to really get after you," Mankins said. "It's their speed and they know how to rush the passer. They are good with their moves and they are very athletic. They can do a lot of different things."
Brady tries to educate his younger teammates not to take Super Bowls for granted even as he prepares for a fifth.

"They are all pretty special," Brady said. "We're very fortunate to be here. We have overcome quite a few adversities to get here. You try to communicate with all the young players how special it is because you never know if you are ever going to be back."

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Time brings a lot of things along for the ride, a crease or two in the brow, perhaps some gray around the temples and a lot more perspective. Looking back, five seems to be a more impressive number now than when former Broncos star John Elway lived it as a player. For now, Elway is the only quarterback in NFL history with five Super Bowl starts. That changes next Sunday in Indianapolis when New England Patriots star Tom Brady joins him.

"It's kind of nice to look back on it now and you see how difficult it has been since (Brady), he's the only other one," Elway said last week. "To get to five of those, that's really hard. "I'm not sure you realize that at the time, especially early in your career if you get to a Super Bowl. You're young, so you kind of lose your perspective a little bit."

Elway helped lead the Broncos to three Super Bowls in a four-season span, from 1986 to 1989. The Broncos lost all three NFL title games, to the New York Giants (39-20), Washington Redskins (42-10) and San Francisco 49ers (55-10). Those trips to the Super Bowl came at the end of Elway's fourth, fifth and seventh seasons in the league. It took Elway, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, and the Broncos eight years to get back to the Super Bowl. Armed with a strong running game fueled by Terrell Davis, the Broncos were NFL champions in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Elway retired after being named the MVP of his last game, Super Bowl XXXIII.

"We had three trips out of four years at one point," Elway said. "When you are younger, you think that's how it's going to be. But then you wait, and that's when you realize what it really means because during those eight years you feel like it might not happen again. So, for what Tom and the Patriots have done is really a testament to the kind of player he is."

Brady is the league's ultimate competitor. The Patriots were a flawed team for much of this season, finishing 31st in total defense and struggling enough in their secondary that veteran coach Bill Belichick used wide receivers as defensive backs. And yet the Patriots are 15-3 and have a 10-game winning streak entering Super Bowl XLVI against the Giants. It's a rematch of the Super Bowl played four years ago.

"He's Tom Brady. That's all you can say," said Champ Bailey, an 11-time Pro Bowl cornerback whose Broncos were beaten 45-10 by Brady and the Patriots in the AFC semifinals this season. Brady threw six touchdown passes. "He's been around the block a few times and if you're not ready to punch him in the mouth, he's going to eat you up all night," Bailey said.

Brady fits the profile of a three-time Super Bowl winner. He's at the top of his profession and has enough talent around him to consistently get to the playoffs. He wins with his skill and with his composure. Elway had to pull off "The Drive" in Cleveland to get to his first Super Bowl. And to return to the Super Bowl, Elway had to overcome injuries to himself and to teammates. He had to persevere through seasons that didn't end the way he had hoped.

Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in 2008. He was injured in the season opener that year and didn't play again until a year later. Four seasons ago, Brady and the Patriots were 18-0 when they lost Super Bowl XLII to the Giants 17-14.

"When you lose playoff games, it's a very bitter feeling, and it sits in your mind for quite a long time," Brady said. "That's the reason guys are here — to win."Said Elway of Brady: "Obviously he's a guy, having that kind of a career to get to that many Super Bowls, who's a great player on a great team. He's usually a big reason why they got there. Not only a great quarterback, but a good guy. I'm happy for him."

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It had to be one of the most disheartening losses Tom Brady has ever had. Yes, the one four years ago in the Arizona desert. Brady’s high-powered offense that had been so spectacular for 18 games – all wins – crashed and burned under the weight of an immense New York Giants pass rush.

As spectacular as his career has been, with three Super Bowl titles and two Super Bowl MVP awards, we forget that his legacy would be even more spectacular with a win in that game, not to mention a couple others. He would have been the quarterback of the best team in the history of the NFL. So the postseason hasn’t always been fun for the quarterback of the New England Patriots.

But a win in Super Bowl XLVI and that loss may be forgotten. The older you get in the NFL, the bigger the big games get, because you never know how many more of them you have left. “There’s certainly a finality to this game,” Brady said Thursday, “where you’re putting absolutely everything into it preparation-wise and you’re expected to go out there and play at your very best. And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”

Brady talked about the 110 practices, the fact this will be the team’s 23rd game of the year (16 regular-season, four exhibition and three playoff games), and that by now the grind should be second nature.
“We have experience,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot.”He certainly has. Brady said Thursday that he thinks this team is extremely mentally tough with the leadership in the locker room.

“We’re finding ways to win these games,” he said. And now they’ll be looking to find a way to win one more. There’s less of a weight on his and other Patriots’ shoulders. They don’t bring that unbeaten record into this one. But 15-3 isn’t anything to sneeze at, either. Sometimes those numbers are all forgotten in a Super Bowl. Brady was asked Thursday whether he felt that he needed to play the best game of his career to beat the Giants. C’mon, isn’t that what he wants to do every week? “I sure hope so,” he said. “I go out there, and you try to be at your very best in the biggest game. My teammates really count on that. Certainly I count on that.”But it doesn’t come easy.

“There’s a lot of preparation that goes into that,” he said. “Playing with confidence and anticipation, understanding the game plan, and going out and executing it when it matters the most. That’s what it’s going to take. It’s a great team that we’re playing.”It’s funny, not too many looked at the Giants as a great team four years ago, yet they had a better record (10-6), were a little more consistent through the regular season and had to win all their playoff games on the road.

This Giant team was 7-7 and almost left for dead after a listless loss to the Redskins at home. Then they beat the Jets and Cowboys in must-win games and basically have been in five straight do-or-die games.
And, of course, they beat Brady and the Patriots earlier in the season. But does that really matter? The Patriots and Brady looked in a hurry on Thursday in their post-practice interviews. They had meetings. Film to watch. You know that long after the media left Gillette Stadium, No. 12 was still there. He knows what it’s like to lose a Super Bowl and doesn’t want to feel that sting again.

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