Is Tom Brady Done For The Season?
Posted by Sport.co.uk on: 10 September 2008 - 11:50
Author: Steven Rawlins
On Sunday, Tom Brady kept his streak of 128 consecutive games alive by walking on to the field at Gillette Stadium. In the first quarter, Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard killed that streak for him. And he killed it good.
Knee injury
In a play that Randy Moss, New England’s superstar wide receiver called “dirty”, Pollard brought down Brady after being tackled by a Patriots offensive lineman, as the MVP quarterback stepped forwards into the pocket. Brady went down holding his knee and then left the game. Rumours circulating afterwards have suggested that the injury may be serious enough for Brady to miss the entire rest of the season.
Too soon for Brady to play?
Even before the game there was plenty of speculation about whether Brady was ready to play football, given that he sat out all three pre-season games with a “bone bruise” in his left foot. Many thought that he was set to miss at least the first week of this season, so the fact that he did play and then got injured obviously begs the question - was Game One too soon for Brady to come back?
Rusty
I think it was. And I think Belichik owes an apology to a lot of pretty depressed Patriots fans. Although the three-time Superbowl winning QB led the Patriots to a perfect regular season last year, he had not played in 7 months before this weekend. He was rusty, plain and simple. And anyway, if the injuries to his foot and ankle weren’t that serious, why didn’t he throw a single pre-season pass?
Banged-up
Just from watching Brady during the opening plays of the game it didn’t look as if he was his usual, agile self. It is thought that the existing injuries to his ankle and foot may have hampered his lateral movement in the pocket, which could have been very significant if it reduced his ability to dodge out of the path of the charging Pollard and a tackle that Randy Moss wrongly described as dirty. The tackle was clean – the end result not so much.
Remember Palmer’s knee?
Brady went down clutching his left knee, and the way in which it buckled smacked heavily of ACL, or maybe MCL damage. If the Patriots are really unlucky then it’s both. Carson Palmer knows all about that double whammy. After the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive tackle Kimo von Oelhoffen crushed Palmer’s knee in the 2005 AFC wild card game, the would-be pro-bowler needed reconstructive surgery to both ligaments. The injury could have cost Palmer his career.
Game over for the Patriots?
Brady’s injury does not appear to be as serious as that – he did walk off the field after all, albeit gingerly and with assistance. The real worry is whether he’ll be done for the rest of this season. Matt Cassel, the seldom-used backup quarterback held his own and led New England to an eventual victory, but there’s no way that the Patriots will still be favorites to win the Superbowl this season without Brady’s presence.
Good news for Defenses
After the game, rival quarterbacks Tony Romo and Brett Favre tried to sound sincere as they expressed what a shame it was that Brady might be out for the season. But you know that behind closed doors, a lot of NFL teams, and especially their defensive contingents, were cracking open the champagne. Without Brady in the league, the odds on every other team making the Superbowl just went up slightly.