Legacy

While nobody's staying up nights feeling bad for Tom Brady, I wonder if his having won Super Bowls early in his career and lost them late will have a negative effect on his legacy.  If he never wins another Super Bowl, his trajectory will be the opposite of John Elway, who lost three Super Bowls and was hounded as a guy that couldn't win the big one until winning two in his final two years. Now, nobody thinks of Elway as anything other than an absolute winner; nobody remembers his first three attempts.

Brady lost his two Super Bowls in the final minute, both of which included once-in-a-lifetime catches (including certainly the most circus catch in football history.)  Meanwhile, Elway's three losses were each record-setting blowouts: 39-20, 42-10 and 55-10.  Brady was inches and seconds away from being 5-0; Elway hung in long enough to have Terrell Davis save him from being the all-time laughingstock of Super Bowl history.  I guess it's like if you wanna compete in the BCS bowl, you better lose in September, not December.

Hey, Tom - you'll always be a winner in my book.