Tom Brady leads Patriots to Super Bowl after record comeback

Tom Brady pulled off the biggest comeback in the history of season-ending NFL extravaganzas. A very Super Bowl.

New England’s Tom Brady with the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Houston yesterday.

New England trailed by 25 points. Super Droll. Tom Brady needed to start playing ball like Lady Gaga had commandeered the piano.

One throw of the leather dice at a time, the Patriots worked their way back into it. America’s grand final went into overtime, for the first time, and the greatest Tom since Raudonikis pulled off the biggest comeback in the history of these season-ending NFL extravaganzas. A very Super Bowl.

Brady started the season with a shockingly poor reputation and a four-match suspension for his role in the much-publicised Deflategate. He left Houston’s NRG Stadium with a 34-28 triumph, his revenge completed, a record-breaking fifth championship ring on his only spare finger, acknowledgment as the all-time greatest quarterback and a fourth MVP memento in his briefcase. Addressing the Patriots’ faithful from the podium while holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy, Brady shouted: “We’re bringing this sucker home!”

More GOATs can be found in sport right now than in rural NSW bushland. Roger Federer at the tennis. Brady in the NFL.

Atlanta looked home and hosed in champagne. Brady bunched the Patriots. Brady rallied after initially being thrown around like Brett Hodgson in Origin. Brady nailed a pass. Brady nailed another pass. Brady threw for 466 yards, a Super Bowl record, and two touchdowns.

He finished 43 for 62, the most attempts in Super Bowl history. It was the biggest comeback or the biggest collapse, depending on your viewpoint, because no team had won (or lost) the Super Bowl from a margin of 10 points or more.

ESPN’s Matt Bowen, unrelated to the former North Queensland fullback, wrote of the match­winning try, sorry touchdown: “Patriots QB Tom Brady took over on the game-winning drive. Out route, comeback, crosser. Dialled in. Throwing to the spot consistently versus a tired Falcons defence. The play call to win it? The Crack Toss. Block down on the edge and pull outside. Great effort from James White to find the end zone. Patriots win Super Bowl LI in overtime.”

Brady told his post-match press conference: “I’m tired, man. That was exactly the way we didn’t plan it. That was everything we didn’t want to do in the first half. It was better in the second half. I wasn’t thinking much. I was thinking, ‘We’ve just got to score’. And then we score the touchdown, we get the turnover — there was a lot of shit that happened tonight. I got hit pretty hard.”

Brady added: “I’m so proud of our guys, our coaches, the team. It’s unbelievable what these guys have accomplished all season. We all brought each other back. We never felt out of it. It was a tough battle. They have a great team and I give them a lot of credit. We just made a few more plays than them.”

The game-tying march and touchdown was completed with 57 seconds to go in regulation time. The Patriots won the toss of the coin for the extra stanza, which meant Brady got the ball in his hands again, which meant Brady could play puppet master again, which meant Brady could do what he was paid $US29 million ($38m) this season to do. He got the job done.

Atlanta’s wait for their first Super Bowl victory enters a 52nd year while reaction in America became divided. Brady’s success was hardly the most popular of all time but he had the ultimate comeback for the avalanche of haters. Just look at the scoreboard.

“There was a lot at stake tonight,” Brady said. “We played our tails off all season to get to this point. It’s hard to win one game in the NFL.

“To beat this team when you’re down 28-3, there’s just a lot of mental toughness from our team. We’re all going to remember this for the rest of our lives. You’re playing with fire if you’re trying to manage the clock when you’re down by eight points. You just get it in. We got to 28-12, then 28-20 and then 28-28 and then 34-28.

“How about that? There were a lot of plays that coach (Bill Belichick) talks about. You never know which play it’s going to be in the Super Bowl. There were probably 30 of them tonight that if any one of those would have been different, the outcome could have been different.”

Brady’s masterpiece was complemented by White’s three touchdowns and a freakish catch from Julian Edelman when the Patriots were eight points adrift with two minutes on the clock.

Three Falcons defenders were in the vicinity for what appeared to be a certain interception or incompletion. Game over. Edelman came up with the ball in a crucial and spectacular play while White was compiling his Super Bowl-record 14 receptions and three touchdowns. Having been lambasted all season for Deflategate, and with family health issues in the background, Brady curled into a ball and wept on the middle of the field.

“I couldn’t believe it. That was one of the greatest catches I’ve ever seen,” Brady said. “I don’t know how the hell he caught it. I don’t think he knows … James White is everything you want in a teammate and a football player. Dependable. Consistent. Durable. The best attitude. He brings it every day. You know, we just kept going to him.

“I think that speaks for itself. Down by 25 points, it was hard to imagine us winning. It took a lot of great plays.”