Tom Brady has heard all the critiques of the Patriots' year. And it seems like the 40-year-old quarterback is using the negativity as fuel heading into the AFC Championship Game at Kansas City.
“It’ll be a good game,” Brady told CBS’ Tracy Wolfson. “They’re a good team. We played them earlier this year. I know everyone thinks we suck and can’t win any games. We’ll see. So it will be fun.”
While Tom Brady has had a year at QB that most teams in the NFL would kill for, plenty of people throughout the league and in Foxborough have noticed that he's fallen from his peak. You couldn't toss a vegan smoothie without hitting an opinion piece noting that the Patriots dynasty was coming to an end. Of course, that supposedly done for team is just a game away from the Super Bowl. So, those obituaries might be a little early.
However, just about everyone is ready to call Brady finished. Even his team has had their doubts about the guaranteed Hall of Famer. In an earth-shaking report, ESPN's Seth Wickersham noted that the idea that Brady was in decline had some play in New England's front office.
"Atypically, he has missed a lot of practices and, in the team's private evaluations, is showing the slippage of a 40-year-old quarterback even as he is contending for MVP and is as deadly as ever with the game on the line," Wickersham wrote.
As Brady said, we'll see. The Patriots — and by extension, the league of the last 15 years — play the future of the NFL in Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on January 20.
