By Mark Halpern
The term G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) is thrown around a lot regarding sports. In the game of Football, however, when we use this term, Tom Brady is currently at the top of the list. As we all know, Tom Brady has almost as many Super Bowl rings as fingers and more Super Bowl M.V.P.s than anyone else in the sport. He is a definite future Hall of Famer and quite possibly will hold certain records (like the M.V.P.’s) that no one will ever break. However, reading particular articles this past week makes me worry.
Those of you who have not read Brady played all last season with a slightly torn MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament) in his knee and during the playoffs, and Super Bowl likely tore. Now coming from someone who has had a slightly torn MCL in his life, this is a complex injury to deal with. It generally has swelling and pain, but it really harbors your side-to-side movement, and as a quarterback, a big part of the game is shuffling around. Looking at Brady’s play over last season, we would have never known that he was suffering this injury at all. He threw for an impressive 4633 yards and 40 Touchdowns. It does not seem like someone who had this bad of an injury. This calls into question a lot of speculation.
If Brady was playing with this all season, he could have suffered an even worse injury and possibly lost his full walking capability. Why risk something so much when you are already the best? He has been a true competitor his whole career but, it is time to consider life after Football. It will not suit him well if he is hobbling for the rest of his life. Major MCL surgery takes months, if not a year, to recover from. How did he deal with the pain is another question altogether. Was he receiving pain injections to deal with it? Why was this never on the injury reports that come out weekly? Did the Buccaneers not disclose the information, and by not does this violate many N.F.L. rules? I am sure the N.F.L. will look at this more closely, but I do not see anything coming of it.
I used the word Foolish in my title because I have had many injuries over the last 30 years.
I was a Catcher for 28 years of my life, and at 5’8 175lbs, I was slammed into so many times that I was told to stop playing at 22 years old. I continued to play until 28, when my back started hurting, and at 30 years old, I had the first of 14 surgeries needed to start repairing my back. I was foolish, but I was not the G.O.A.T. by any means. Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization should have handled this better. Brady has admitted having complete MCL surgery in the off-season, and this brings this season into question. If he has a bad year, is it because of the surgery probably, and we can no longer call him the G.O.A.T. any of course not? However, there should have been no question in his position then to shut him down last season and treat the injury the right way and not risk his body any more than it needed, and that is how the old man sees it.
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