What I Love Most About Tom Brady's Extension

It's Monday. It's February. It's cold, it's grey, and it's windy. I haven't seen the sun, a well-fitted pair of yoga pants, or my feet since early November. It's the worst time of the year and it isn't even close.

But today, you'll have a hard time wiping the kind of smile off my face that usually doesn't make it's appearance until early May.

Tom Brady is officially a Patriot For Life.

Tommy B's extension is all of 45 minutes old by this point, which in NFL offseason years, means it's old news. It's all over the major sports websites, Twitter, various blogs, and if you have friends like mine, odds are you've received 45-50 texts about it from various people assuming that they were the first one to break the news. I had to read Peter King's article more than once, because it just seemed so unbelievable, but any way you slice it, the deal is done and Patriots Nation has very good cause for celebration.

There's a lot to like about this deal. But you know what I love most about it? It isn't the terms - 3 years, $27 million - that frees up a tremendous amount of cap space. It isn't that the Patriots now have Brady under contract until he's 40. It isn't that he is now going to retire a Patriot and we likely won't have to go through what Colts fans went through when Peyton Manning got shipped off to Denver.

It's that Brady has once again reminded us just how special a player he is.

This now marks the second time in Tommy B's career where he has taken far less money than what he is worth for the betterment of the team and the chance to remain competitive for the remainder of his career. In an NFL climate that is riddled with holdouts, contract squabbles, threats, and overall butthurtery, here we have the best player in the game putting others over self. Right in the middle of a Percy Harvin trade standoff, a Darrelle Revis snafu, a full-throttle Joe Flacco rumpswabbing, and the second year of a three year, $40 million dollar buttfumbler Mark Sanchez contract, here we have Tom Brady happily choosing the team he loves, the sport he loves, and the chance for the championship he loves over everything else. There's not much more to say other than that.

You may not like his choice of footwear. You may not like his fashion sense. You may not like his tendency to appeal to the refs for flags. And you may not like that he probably has a winning record against your team. But anyone who says that Tom Brady is anything other than a consummate professional and ultimate team player simply doesn't understand pro sports. Brady may be the only professional athlete across any sport who understands and appreciates exactly how much money he gets paid to do what he loves, and at the end of the day the chance to compete for a championship is far, far more important than adding a couple million dollars to the millions upon millions of dollars he already has.

Thank you, Tom. If there's anything I can do for you in return for what you just did for my team, you just give me a call.

Or maybe you just want to chat - you have my number.

And my address.

And that picture I sent of us together in the Hamptons with my face Photoshopped over Puff Daddy's.