Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was a 49ers fan growing up in San Mateo, California in the 80's and 90's. He grew up idolizing 49ers quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young.
“It was always a special time for me to go out there -- my parents had season tickets -- and we’d go sit down in the end zone about 10 rows from the top of the stadium in Candlestick, which isn’t the greatest field to begin with,” Brady said during his first press conference of Super Bowl week in Indianapolis Sunday. “We watched a lot of big 49ers games.”
With a victory in Super Bowl XLVI next Sunday, Brady can join his boyhood hero -- and the Steelers’ Terry Bradshaw -- as the only starting quarterbacks to win four Super Bowls. When made aware of that statistic, Brady smiled and deflected the question.
“I honestly haven’t given much thought to any records or anything like that,” he said. “For me and for our team, it’s really about this one game and the challenges that Giants present to us.”
But there has to be a little part of Brady that would relish the opportunity to stand on equal footing with his childhood hero as one of the all-time great Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. The smile was a dead giveaway.
Brady has already joined Montana as the only players in NFL history to win NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP multiple times.
It's a credit to how far Brady has come in his football career. It seems so long ago now that Brady was fighting for playing time at the University of Michigan and then toiling into the late round of the 2000 NFL Draft.
Brady won a Super Bowl in his first year as a starter for the Patriots in 2001, filling in for the injured Drew Bledsoe, but it was the Patriots' defense that carried that team to the title. Brady averaged 189.5 yards passing per game that season and had 18 touchdowns to 12 interceptions.
“Tom obviously is a great football player, but he’s come a long way from where he was in 2001, as we all have,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “Tom works extremely hard, he’s very coachable, and what you tell him to do, he works very hard on. He’s never satisfied with where he’s at or what he’s done or how he’s playing.”
Brady averaged 327 yards this season with 39 touchdowns to 12 interceptions.
That's coming a long way in 10 years.
“Seeing Tom since I’ve been here, he’s a great leader,” said Patriots guard Logan Mankins. “He leads by example. He’s vocal when he needs to be. He does everything that you would want from a football player and would really want in your quarterback. That’s what Tom Brady is.”
Brady seemed to relish the opportunity to reflect back on his childhood with that subtle smile that came to his face when both his name and Montana's were brought up in the same sentence. It almost seemed like things had come full-circle for him in that moment.
“It’s pretty cool to think that we as NFL players, there’s some kids looking down at us that are going to have some pretty special memories as they grow up,” he said.
Just as Brady did so many years ago at Candlestick Park.
