"To err, is human. To forgive, divine."
I forgive Tom Brady. I forgave him as he was dragged to the ground. I forgave him as he carelessly hurled that ball into the air. I forgave him before I even saw that Miami Dolphin pick it off. And if there's a single Patriots fan out there that didn't do the same thing, you should be ashamed of yourself. Yes, it was a bone-headed move. Yes, it cost us the game and any realistic shot of home field advantage in the AFC playoffs. But anyone so short-sighted and forgetful that he can't remember back to Super Bowl XXXVI and XXXVIII, doesn't deserve to be a Patriots fan or lay claim to those two championships. Let's give the guy a break. After all, he's never needed one before.
Don't think for a moment that this is just some way for me to make excuses for my team's performance, or lie because I don't want to face the harsh reality that this team utterly failed last night. But in some ways I'm thankful that Tom Brady threw those four interceptions. Believe me, I wasn't at the time. When Brady threw that third and completely unnecessary interception to give the Dolphins a good chance at winning the game, I sat there for the next two minutes just yelling "TOM!...TOM!...TOM!...TOM!...TOM!...TOM!... you get the idea. I didn't know what to do. It was just absolutely flabbergasting. It was like watching your dog drop anchor on your brand new white carpet. You want to be mad, but the shock of it just completely overwhelms you. But about half and hour after the game, once I had finally calmed down, I realized that this was the best thing to happen to me as a Patriots fan in a long time.
I hadn't showed emotion for the Patriots since the Rams game. The Pats scored a touchdown and I jumped in the air and hit my head on the dropped ceiling in the basement, successfully knocking the tile out and breaking a support beam. And between the thoughts of "My mother's gonna kill me if I can't fix this!" and "Crap, there's dust and debris all over the place, my mother's gonna kill me!", was the thought "Hey, we're not gonna lose this thing!" That's why we cheer so hard - because we don't want to lose this week. We don't want to go through the next six days having to think about Sunday's failure. We don't want to get laughed at the next day at work, we want to do the laughing. I know that there's a bunch of medical students wishing that there wasn't Christmas break this week, so they could come in and tear me to pieces after all the smack I've talked about the Jets. The fear makes us cheer. And since that moment when I realized that somehow our decimated secondary could handle the Rams' star receivers on turf, I haven't had a reason to fear. I also haven't had a reason to really cheer. Bills, Chiefs, Ravens, Browns, Bengals - none of them scared me one bit. And so I watched, and the Patriots won. There wasn't a moment that I believed they wouldn't.
It had now been seven weeks since I had been fired up for a Patriots game. Earlier on Monday, I found myself thinking about Super Bowl XXXIX, and wondering how much it would actually mean to me. I just hadn't felt anything for this team in so long. When the Dolphins went up 29-28, I finally felt something. Yeah, I was sick to my stomach, but it was a feeling. Suddenly, that game in Pittsburgh didn't seem like such a fluke. Suddenly, we'd lost a game with Corey Dillon. Suddenly, I was desperate for Ty Law to come back. Suddenly, Super Bowl XXXIX didn't seem like such a sure thing. Suddenly, I cared for this team again.
I needed the Patriots to lose this game. I needed it because it saved my season. This team was born to be the underdog, being the favorite just didn't feel right. This team need to go back to Pittsburgh to play the AFC Championship. Playing in the comfort of the Razor just wouldn't cut it. Now they will have to walk into a stadium dead-set against them, look into the eyes of the team that ended their winning streak, and run them into the ground - all the way to Jacksonville. And Tom Brady needed to finally fail.
Quarterbacks make dumb passes all the time... Unless they happen to have "Brady" sewn onto the back of their jerseys. Over the past four years the man has become a legend. He flawlessly and methodically picks apart the opponent's defense. He is strong, tough, accurate and up until last night, was smart. We had come to expect perfection from him, because week after week, that was exactly what he had delivered. But to err, is human. We had forgotten that Tom Brady was human. You can't blame us, really. The man has it all: talent, looks, money, women, and two Super Bowl MVP trophies. He wasn't like the rest of us. He was that step above us all. What was so shocking about that third interception last night, was that throwing the ball away as you're getting sacked is something that we would do, not Tom Brady. But there he was, on the ground, watching that Miami player run away with the game. And for the first time in a long time, Tom Brady looked very human.
If Pittsburgh loses to either the Ravens or the Bills (something that's even more likely now that the Patriots have taken away the pressure), the reason the Patriots won't have home field advantage is because of Tom Brady's ill-timed pass. The man who has never lost in the playoffs, will have to walk into a hostile stadium instead of a supportive Gillette. And he'll have to take that streak of perfection into that environment knowing that he's there because he's not perfect. Everywhere he looks the black and yellow will mock him, reminding him that he failed. The crowd that deafens him as he tries to call out plays, will be taunting him, telling him that he's no different than the rest of us. And Tom Brady will have a choice: prove them right, or go to the Super Bowl.
Maybe three titles in four years just isn't meant to be. Maybe this team's easy schedule has deceived fans into thinking that the Patriots are better than they actually are. And maybe our quarterback just happens to be a great example of being at the right place at the right time. I personally, don't believe any of that. I believe the Patriots will be the last team standing in Jacksonville. I believe this team can go head to head with any opponent and come out victorious. And the reason I believe those two things, is because I believe that Tom Brady really is that cut above everybody else. I believe that he's going to dust himself off and smoke every team that's left on the schedule. I believe that he's going to stretch that undefeated playoff streak to 7-0, then to 8-0, then to 9-0. I believe he'll repeat as Super Bowl MVP. Because I believe that Tom Brady won't fail. I believe Tom Brady can't fail.
I believe that Tom Brady is not quite human.
