Commentary: NFL season without Tom Brady has no meaning
When Tom Brady went down in the first quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs, prematurely ending his 2008-'09 season, I felt his pain because my season ended as well. Not only did the event ruin my fantasy football hopes, as Brady was my first overall pick, but it also destroyed my appetite to watch another NFL game this year. Brady's absence has done more than deprive the league of its reigning MVP.What is the point of watching professional football when the quarterback who was featured in nearly every "SportsCenter" highlight reel last year is sitting on the sideline?
When Brady single-handedly resuscitated Randy Moss' career by hooking up with him for touchdown after touchdown at an unbelievable pace and achieved perfection in the regular season, he became the poster boy of both the NFL and my bedroom.
Undeniably, a healthy Brady ranks above Roethlisberger, the Mannings (yes, both of them), and even Brett Favre (I said it). Even more so: Tom Brady is the NFL; thus, when Tom Brady is injured, the NFL is injured.
Of course, people are not going to altogether ignore the NFL. Football is still the most lucrative professional sport in America, but fans will definitely not be looking for this year's season to stand out among previous seasons. Brady has carried the NFL on his shoulders since the turn of the millennium, and as he suddenly dropped from the scene, fans will slowly begins to realize what they are missing.
We will all miss the broken records and amazing scrambles. We will all miss someone to love and hate for the exact same reasons. We will all miss Tom Brady on the front page of Star Magazine as we wait in the checkout line.
Most importantly, we will all miss a legitimate Super Bowl champion this season because, just as Barry Bonds' home run record should be asterisked, so should this NFL season, the season Tom Brady did not play.
This season will not be the year a team goes 19-0, nor the year anyone compares a team to Mike Ditka's hallowed 1985 Chicago Bears. This year will not perpetuate the Patriot dynasty but will also not crumble it.
With last year's incredible storylines that included 50 touchdown passes, the reemergence of Randy Moss with 23 touchdown receptions and a perfect regular season, Tom Brady and the boys in silver captured and held the attention of the football world all the way to the Super Bowl. Had it not been for that major hiccup against the New York Giants, we could have witnessed the greatest football team in the history of the NFL. Nope. That is not happening this year.
Television ratings have never been higher than when America waited for the former 199th pick out of University of Michigan to either continue shattering records or choke this past season. Consequently, commissioner Roger Goodell needs Tom Brady almost as bad as David Stern and the NBA need Kobe Bryant. And just like Kobe, Brady's ability to dissect defenses makes him the most hated and loved figure in the game.
Brady's fans feel for him. We had so much to prove to the nay-sayers this season. We needed to return to the Super Bowl but leave with a better outcome. We needed to prove we could win honestly, with the Spygate scandal only one year behind us. We needed to prove that our team was the last one opposing teams want to see get off the charter bus at the stadium.
Even if Brady threw away all his wonders on the field, the NFL would still need him and his publicity. Brady can't take a walk around Foxborough without making front page of the local newspaper, only helping the NFL's publicity.
As far as this season goes, no matter which team is crowned champion in the end, the victors' toils will forever be devalued because they never played against Tom Brady. It is not fair to them, the league or Tom Brady.
If case anyone had any doubt, it is unreasonable to expect Matt Cassel to lead the Patriots to a Super Bowl victory like Brady himself did in 2001 when then-starter Drew Bledsoe went down.
Although this season may be more interesting because it gives other teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars and San Diego Chargers a better shot to win the Super Bowl, the NFL will only truly recover from this crippling injury when Tom Brady steps back onto the field.
Prem Ramkumar is a Jones College freshman.
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