Brady on verge of turning lowly Bucs into Super Bowl champs
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[February 06, 2021]
By Rory Carroll
(Reuters) - When Tom Brady left the
Patriots after two decades for the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers last
offseason, he said he was doing so to see "how great I can be".
That led to raised eyebrows as well as a few eye rolls among NFL
fans.
Sure, Brady won a record six Super Bowl rings in New England, but he
would be a 43-year-old by the time the season rolled around and
Father Time remains undefeated, especially in a sport as physical as
pro football.
He was also joining a Buccaneers squad coming off a 7-9 season that
had not made the playoffs since the 2007 campaign, their lone
championship coming way back in 2003.
A winning culture was not exactly part of the Buccaneers' DNA,
having been a laughing stock of the league in the 1970s and
perennial bottom feeders from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.
But the Northern California native, who was drafted by the Patriots
in 2000 in the sixth round with the 199th pick, set out to forge a
new path for the franchise and once again prove the doubters wrong.
Before the season even started, Brady, who signed a two-year, $50
million deal with the Bucs, took matters into his own hands by
bringing longtime Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski out of
retirement to join him in Tampa.
And he joined a Bucs team that was better than its record from the
previous season suggested.
It boasted a solid receiving core in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, a
stout defense and a sharp and diverse coaching staff led by league
veteran Bruce Arians, who has two rings of his own from his time as
a wide receiver coach and offensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh
Steelers.
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Tampa Bay
Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady during NFL football practice,
Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021 in Tampa, Fla. The Buccaneers will face the
Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 55. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Zedaker/Handout
Photo via USA TODAY Sports
After losing to a very good New Orleans team on the road in the
season opener, the Bucs ironed out the kinks and got better as the
year progressed.
The team played its best football in the final month of the season
including upset wins over the Saints and Green Bay Packers in the
playoffs to set up a meeting with the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday
with the Lombardi Trophy on the line.
The Chiefs are slight favorites to repeat as champions, but it is
hard to bet against Brady, who appeared relaxed this week while
discussing his journey back to the Super Bowl.
"Part of the reason why I came here is because there were a lot of
great things here - a great coaching staff, great players. I felt
like I could come in and really help the team win," he told
reporters.
"We all hoped to get to this point in the season, which we have. Now
we've got to go try to finish it off."
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, editing by Ed Osmond)
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