NFL News, 2021 Odds & Predictions
Is Brady the GOAT of All GOATs?
Unless you have been living on Pluto during the last week, then you know that Tom Brady has become the first player in NFL history to do, well, just about everything. Ten Super Bowl appearances, and seven rings to show for it after he led the Tampa Bay Bucs to a 31-9 victory over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. It was a living legend versus a young superstar and the former came out on top.
The NFL Odds being dealt on the game revealed the Buccaneers as three-point underdogs even though their quarterback had a history of winning the vast majority of the Super Bowls in which he participated. Oh, and in addition to winning his seventh Super Bowl title, three more than the great Joe Montana, he also won his fifth Super Bowl MVP trophy. Tom Terrific has now won a Super Bowl in two conferences over three decades.
And understanding that Brady has cemented his legacy as the greatest football player ever to lace up the cleats, people are now comparing him to the GOATs (Greatest Of All Time) in other sports. How does TB12 compare to Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, or Michael Jordan? And to demonstrate how far people have gone in their hero-worship of the ageless wonder, some are demanding the league retire No. 12, not just in New England where he toiled for two decades, but in every city that is home to an NFL franchise!
While that is highly unlikely, dare we say impossible, the accolades bestowed on the 43-year-old are understandable. Brady left New England for the sun-kissed environs of Tampa Bay with an arsenal of weapons that were missing in Foxboro. Many believed Brady would flounder without the guiding hand of former head coach, Bill Belichick, but even if he did fare well with his brand-new club, how much would anyone expect out of what was a 7-9 team just a year ago? A first-round playoff one-and-done perhaps?
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But Brady had a few tricks up his sleeve and wasn’t afraid to use them. First, he lured his former teammate, Rob Gronkowski, out of retirement and then wooed bad boy Antonio Brown into the fold. Now he had the greatest tight end to ever play the game at his disposal and a former All-Pro in AB who was considered arguably the best wideout in the business just a few years ago. Now factor in three-time Pro Bowler Mike Evans and speed merchant, Chris Godwin, who also made the Pro Bowl in 2019, and suddenly you have an offense waiting to explode.
“It’s hard to do what he (Brady) did, to come without an offseason, learn a new system as a quarterback — the hardest position in all of team sports — and to just pick it up like he’s been running this offense for a long time,” said teammate Mike Evans. “Obviously we got better as the year went on, but man, Tom’s the GOAT for a reason. He played great all year. We needed him to do that and we got the goal that we were aiming for.”
Brady has been credited with not only performing but changing the culture of a moribund franchise that had forgotten how to win.
“It was instant. If you add Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, that’s going to do it itself,” Evans said. “We have a lot of great players around him. If you give the G.O.A.T. all these players it’s going to work out and it did. We fought hard all season. We were learning on the fly, week-to-week. We were a new team and we got the job done — it feels amazing.”
What are the Odds?
But now that Brady has brought the Lombardi Trophy home to Tampa Bay, can he do it again next season. Well, the odds to win the Super Bowl next season are as follows:
Kansas City Chiefs +525
Tampa Bay Buccaneers +700
Green Bay Packers +1200
Los Angeles Rams +1200
Buffalo Bills +1400
Baltimore Ravens +1600
San Francisco 49ers +1600
Cleveland Browns +2000
Dallas Cowboys +2000
New Orleans Saints +2200
Seattle Seahawks +2200
Indianapolis Colts +2500
Miami Dolphins +2500
Los Angeles Chargers +2800
Pittsburgh Steelers +2800
New England Patriots +3300
Tennessee Titans +3500
Arizona Cardinals +4000
Atlanta Falcons +5000
Carolina Panthers +5000
Chicago Bears +5000
Las Vegas Raiders +5000
Minnesota Vikings +5000
Philadelphia Eagles +5000
Houston Texans +6600
New York Giants +6600
Washington Football Team +6600
Cincinnati Bengals +7500
Denver Broncos +7500
Jacksonville Jaguars +7500
New York Jets +7500
Detroit Lions +10000
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