Tom Brady for 2009 - should I be worried?

Be it mental, physical, or both, will exist until Tom has played at least a few games back at full speed. I’m not a professional athlete, so maybe these guys really are so focused that they can put those thoughts out of their head, but I’m guessing since they’re human like the rest of us there’s always going to be some degree of doubt until they put the injury through its paces. The longer he goes without tweaking it or straining it in full game situations, the better for his confidence, obviously.

As for the risk of re-injury, we should all remember that every starting QB (or any player) is always one bad collision/hit away from having their career threatened or ended, post-injury or not. With a knee injury, the threshold for what a bad hit is probably comes down a bit, but it’s a risk that is largely out of everyone’s control at this point. Worrying about it won’t make it go away! :)

We are talking about Tom Brady here. I repeat. We are talking about Tom Brady here!

His doctor said he gained strength in his knee twice as fast as anybody he has ever seen. I’m not even slightly surprised by that, are you?

If Tom Brady says his knee is fine, it’s fine. This is one of the greatest players to ever play the game. This guy wears 3 Super Bowl Championship rings and two Super Bowl MVP rings (should be three). I can only think of one playoff game that he didn’t play well in. People like Tom Brady don’t let a knee injury stop them. Please.

Worry when there is reason to worry. Worry when we are ahead in the Super Bowl or AFC Championship and have to rely on a defense that has failed time and time again in recent years in the big game.

But don’t worry about Tom Brady. He is the least of your worries, and always has been.

The most solid aspect of Tom Brady has always been his mental focus. To be the leader that he is, he has to project mental sureity. The guys in the huddle and in the locker room would sniff out a lack of confidence in the QB in an instant, it is the nature of the game. If a student of Bill Belichick reform school such as Randy Moss is saying great things, I believe it. In that school, Tom Brady is the Dean of Discipline. I mean really, RM is like the proverbial canary in the mine, if there was something wrong, he’d revert to his former ‘bad actor’ self, wouldn’t he? Does a tiger change it’s stripes? And as for RM, it appears that the alot of his past bad behavior had to do with being a fierce competitor being on crummy teams.

Even if Brady has more hesitation than usual due to the knee(and bearing in mind he’s known for his mental toughness more than a Favre-like arm or Vick-like legs), he’s got a full four pre-season games, in full-contact situation, to get back to readiness. If he doesn’t want contact, he can throw it away with no real circumstances. If he’s hesitating, he’s got vanilla-defences to work them out against. He’s also got an extra top-flight RB to hand it off to, to get back in the swing of things, and another two top-flight TEs to relieve pressure and offer pass protection as necessary. A non-issue, given the circumstances.

One of the things that impresses me about Brady is how he stands so cock-sure in the pocket until he delivers the ball at the last second – knowing he’ll be clocked. He’s done it for so long, I don’t think it will change.

With Manning last year, he was rehabbing DURING the season. Tom did his rehab over the gazillion months, different story.

Look at the guys like Harrison, that are in more physical roles. He had the same injury. Boom, throw a tackle, OK questions over, the leg is good.

Fact: I’m a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do

When you punch through concrete, you have to know in your head that you’re going through it. If you don’t, you hesitate, and you’ll end up just hurting yourself. All the energy you create comes back to you instead of work done on the cement.

If you don’t know your going to break it, you don’t throw the punch.

With the football guys, you don’t bother going on the field. Once the battle starts, Tom will be fine, he’ll focus on the job at hand. If he takes a hit, we’ll cringe, but all it will do to him is reassure him that he is fine. He’ll get back up stronger.

I don’t think the preseason will be of much help b/c the Pats aren’t going to want Brady to take unnecesary shots. In addition, has he ever suffered a major injury before? How will the mental part impact that? Look at people the year after a knee injury….most say it takes 2 years to be back to your “old” self. The one good thing he has going for him is that week 1, the Bills don’t generally have a good 4 man rush (unless Maybin is truly a stud and Schobel is his “old” self) so he might be able to get comfortable and get his legs under him. I think predicting he’ll be back to form is a bit premature. If I were a Pats fan I would be holding my breath through the first 1/4 or 1/3 of the season.