“Who plays you in a movie?”

The pause was telling – yet surely he had been asked this question before?

“Denzel.” he replied with a laugh, which verbally confirmed what the pause had already told me about Jerod Mayo – more with it’s breadth than it’s blank silence.

Some would take his answer as a sign of some sort of narcissism, an egomaniac whose daydreams have the handsome leading man of many films as his alter ego – that is, until he offers, “At first I thought it would be (Wesley) Snipes, but it’s Denzel Washington for sure.”

The manner in which he answered made me curiously certain that he viewed himself as a quiet, studious person more than a man of action and intrigue, though a man of action is exactly what he is every time he takes the field for the New England Patriots.

The mellow, contemplative family man is what he is the other 165 hours of the week.

He came off as grounded – a self-aware man, just as a member of the New England Patriots is expected to be – and as the interview progressed his answers were thoughtful and genuine, a pleasant departure from the Belichick-ian scripted responses that we would normally hear…and when I mentioned that fellow linebacker Brandon Spikes was probably better suited to have Snipes play him in a movie, he heartily laughed in agreement…

In his fifth season out of the University of Tennessee, Mayo is the unquestioned leader of a defense that always seems to start the year as a work in progress, yet meticulously works it’s way into a cohesive championship-calibre unit – and where attitude reflects leadership, it’s no wonder that the Patriots defense is sound and disciplined and almost always comes up with the game-changing play.

As we spoke of the Pepsi NFL Anthem program and how he had signed on to represent the Patriots along side Boston rock legends Aerosmith – themselves huge Patriots’ fans - to augment the junction between sports and music, I heard the dutiful side of the 2010 Pro Bowl selection, the side that embraces opportunity as a means to better his family’s life.

He cordially rattled off the company line – scripted – but with a fervor that told of his responsibility, and when the questions turned to football, he was just as enthusiastic – if not more so – yet his answers came easier, as if he leaves the outside world behind, entering a sanctuary where he can be himself.

We spoke of the Miami game, of the perfectly timed “Hug” blitz, of Dolphins’ offensive guard Richie Incognito going after his legs and the intensity of the defensive huddle just before a big play in the game, a noticeable potency to his voice – but those are subjects for another day when we are focused on the upcoming game against the Houston Texans.

For today, we are visiting with Jerod Mayo whose life seems so unspectacular and so ordinary that no Hollywood producer would ever consider making a movie of it…

…but if they did, perhaps he would be portrayed like Denzel’s character , Coach Herman Boone,  in the film Remember the Titans – a man with passion for family and a passion for football, and with the disposition to happily tolerate curious writers who ask him odd questions.

Because he is self-aware, responsible and a role model…otherwise Pepsi wouldn’t have him as a spokesman for their NFL Anthem program, nor would the squeaky clean Kraft family have him as a captain of their football team.

“Yeah, this is my sanctuary right here” Denzel’s character says as he stands on the football field the night before his first game “..this, this is always right. Struggling, survival, victory, and defeat. Its just a game..but I love it.”

Yeah, perhaps Denzel Washington was the right answer.

You can hear and download all of the Pepsi NFL Anthems here .

While it is true that the Dolphins sport the 6th best rush defense in the NFL, it is also true that their 96 yards surrendered on the ground per game is not indicative of their struggles of late.

In the Dolphins first 5 games, they were a miserly 61.4 yards per game with 9 turnovers…but over the last 6 games, they have been a sieve, yielding 126 yards per game while causing only 2 turnovers -including no turnovers forced in the last 4 games.

Add to that the offense’s struggle to get their own running game untracked and it’s not difficult to fathom why they are fading into the AFC East sunset along with the Jets and Bills.

A season saving (for now) last second win over Seattle last Sunday stopped the bleeding of  a Miami three game skid, leaving them at 5-6, just one game behind the Steelers and Bengals for the last wild card playoff spot.  But that tourniquet won’t hold if the Dolphins can’t figure out a way to stop New England’s running game and create some opportunities for turnovers.

Anyone besides me think that Bill Belichick is going to try and run the ball down Miami’s collective throat when the teams meet on Sunday in a 1:00pm scrap?

The Patriots have the 6th ranked running game in the league with a solid 144 yards per game and, even more impressive, have shown the ability to close down games with tough running and moving the chains…and heading into December that’s pretty darned important, but don’t expect Belichick nor his players to beat their own drum loudly about it, if at all.

“I think we’ve done some things well in the last couple of games,” coach Bill Belichick said. “I don’t think that really has any bearing on this game; different team, different matchups, different schemes. It’s all different.”

When it comes to his team, Belichick is nothing if not understated.  He will heap praise on the upcoming opponent at every opportunity but remains understandably vanilla in his language regarding his own squad’s success.

Nov 22, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) hands off to running back Shane Vereen (34) during the second half against the New York Jets on Thanksgiving at Metlife Stadium. The Patriots won the game 49-19. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-US PRESSWIRE

The truth is that New England has been practically unstoppable during the five game winning streak that they carry into south Florida, averaging nearly 44 points with six of its staggering 28 touchdowns coming via the defense and special teams.

Tom Brady has been peerless in that stretch, climbing into the conversation of league MVP with numbers to back it up.

He has completed nearly 65 percent of his passes for 1,454 yards with 14 touchdowns and no interceptions while compiling a 116.3 passer rating – and is playing better overall than he has in his 13 year career – and that has to be a frightening prospect for a young Dolphins squad fighting for their playoff lives.

What is even more amazing about those numbers is that his receiving corps has been crippled by injury, playing without Versatile Aaron Hernandez nearly all season and now without all world Tight End Rob Gronkowski for at least the next few games.  Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd and Julian Edelman have all been nursing injuries as well.

Hernandez is back and looks to be playing at full tilt so with his brawn and speed he becomes the key to the passing attack as he is the proverbial “nightmare matchup” for linebackers and safeties alike, while Lloyd works the sidelines and Welker and Edelman cause chaos underneath.

But the key to this game for the Patriots on offense is to run the ball effectively early on, then use the aggressiveness of the Dolphins’ front 7 against them by utilizing the play action pass.  And any conversation about the Patriots’ running game begins and ends with the offensive line.

Big and powerful and relentlessly violent, the Patriot’s line play has been nothing short of spectacular this season.  They open huge holes in the running game and leave no gap whatever uncovered in pass protection, and trap blocking schemes involving the tight ends have been devastating for opposing run defenders.  They are regularly praised as being one of the top units in the NFL.

The main beneficiary of the line play and having the future first ballot Hall of Famer Brady handing the ball to him is 2nd year back Stevan Ridley, who is just 61 yards shy of the 1000 yard mark with 5 games left.  His determined running style and nifty moves in the gap has allowed him to find the first down marker, and his burst into the defenders helps him to cross it.

Speed merchants Shane Vereen and Danny Woodhead both contribute well in spot duty, both running the ball and catching it in the flat – and both are greased lightening when they get loose past the second level.

All of these things put together suggest another Patriots’ rout, so with their playoff hopes on the line the Dolphins need to be just about perfect to have a chance – and they know it.

“Every game is a playoff game from now on out,” Miami linebacker Kevin Burnett said. “Now is the time.”

The Dolphins had better hope so, because they get the 49ers next week and a rematch with New England looming on the last day of the regular season – and it will be a minor miracle if they’re still in the playoff conversation when they travel to snowy Foxborough at the end of December.

The introduction to Sean Glennon’s new book, The Case for Football’s Greatest Quarterback; Tom Brady vs. The NFL (2012, Triumph Books) reads like a note that I might write to myself, only more well written.  In November of 2001, I would attest to anyone who would listen to me that Drew Bledsoe should have gotten his starting job back…

…which is a mistake that most Patriot fans would eventually have to own – though no one would blame them.  How was anyone supposed to know what to expect from a 6th round draft pick?  He had filled in well for the long time Patriot quarterback, but was essentially still an unknown quantity.

When Glennon writes that as the first sentence of the introduction to the book, it baited me.  It made me wonder if he thought “it” was a fumble.  The affirmation of one’s beliefs is a powerful motivator, and as I watched Charles Woodson knock the ball from Brady’s hand and onto the snow covered field at Foxboro Stadium, I thought it was a fumble, and I still do to this day.

And “it”, of course, is the Tuck Rule play.  In the serene, surreal snowscape of Foxboro Stadium’s last breath, many people find their argument against Tom Brady.  Many believe he is the beneficiary of – and even a product of – that call.  For sure, had the call of fumble been confirmed on replay, the Raiders would have gone on to play Pittsburgh the following week and Brady would have been cleaning out his locker.

I never did find avouchment of that belief in his book, but as I started into the first three chapters that covered Brady’s college career and his first two seasons as a Patriot, Glennon’s matter-of-fact style had me curiously certain that he didn’t think that it mattered anyway – and it doesn’t.

What does matter is that these first three chapters took me back to a cold, overcast night in early February of 2002 where I found myself at my friend Norm’s house, drinking coffee, eating red hots and playing cribbage until the Super Bowl was about to begin…

The walk to Norm’s house was a mess. 

Walking in the roads to avoid the slushy wet snow cone ice on the sidewalks, I was able to navigate my way the two miles from work to Norm’s in reasonable time, and arrived just as he began to saute the onions and peppers for the red hots.

The coffee was already brewed and the cribbage board was set up on the kitchen table.

Norm went over to his circa 1970′s refrigerator, beckoned for my attention and, opening it, pointed to the two bottles of Heineken chilling in the void of the middle shelf.  Closing the door, he shuffled to the cupboard and pulled out a quarter-full bottle of Crown Royal and set it on the table in front of me.  “This is our victory dance” he stated.

As he used a paper towel to wipe the considerable dust from the decorative bottle, Norm explained that he hadn’t touched it in six years, not since he had consumed nearly the entire bottle after Desmond Howard broke his heart – and every Patriots’ fan’s heart – with his dagger of a kickoff return for a touchdown in the Green Bay Packer’s victory over New England in Super Bowl XXXI.

I laughed at first, then recalled my own binge and the pain of that loss.  Norm had known the exquisite pain of being a Patriots’ fan for many years longer than I, as he was 20 years my senior, but with that age came a curious certainty, a knowledge like a sixth sense – like he knew what would happen.

At halftime, with the Patriots up 14-3 on the St. Louis Rams, Norm was again shuffling around in the kitchen, washing his crystal tumblers with the old throwback logo etched carefully on their face, returning with the glasses and the bottle, placing them between us on the coffee table.  He said nothing, just winked.

A flurry of activity found the scored tied at 17 with just over a minute remaining in regulation.  I looked at Norm who said simply “It’s time.”  Against the backdrop of John Madden criticizing Bill Belichick for not taking a knee and playing for overtime, Norm twisted the cap off of the whiskey and poured equal amounts in both glasses, then retrieved the Heinekens from the fridge.

As Brady coolly spiked the football with 7 seconds left and inside Adam Vinatieri’s range, I turned to Norm, who already had his beer opened and tumbler in hand ready to ingest the smooth spirit.

“No way we win this game.” I said, now standing, staring at the TV screen as Vinatieri lined up for the 47 yard field goal – excited beyond reason, 30 years of loyalty to the Patriots about to be realized, though I was half expecting Desmond Howard to suddenly come running out of the Superdome tunnel to miraculously block the attempt, sending our Patriots to yet another championship game disappointment…”No way”…

But Norm was confident.  “It is time, young Grasshopper” he said in his best Master Po voice, winking “It is destined.”, a tear running down his cheek now, 40 years of waiting for this moment about to be justified.

The third chapter of the book gives the finest written account of the drive that I’ve ever read – to the point that the memory that it evoked gave me goosebumps, just as Madden had when he finally realized that he was wrong about chastising Belichick for trying to win the game in regulation.

That drive to win Super Bowl XXXVI is why Tom Brady is the best quarterback that ever played the game.  Glennon didn’t need to write another word after the introduction and the first three chapters - But he did.   His comparisons between Brady and many of the best quarterbacks in history are, by design, subjective.  It’s like reading Reader’s Digest condensed versions of each passer, only to be informed at the end that he doesn’t stack up.

And the book isn’t going to convince a Peyton Manning fan or a Joe Montana fan that Brady is better.  Nothing would.  If God appeared to a Manning fan as a burning bush, claiming that Tom Brady was the best Quarterback of all time, and that their penalty for not believing was to be confined to the desert for 40 years, they would immediately go home and check online listings for dwellings in Barstow.

This is the case, so why write a book such as this in the first place?

For perhaps the same reason that I wanted to know if Glennon thought “it” was a fumble?  To affirm his own belief that Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time and, as we know, the ratification of our personal beliefs is a powerful motivator – motivating enough for the author to do the exhaustive research.

And not just technical research, for the book is well balanced with fact in numbers as a way of comparison and also with chapters dedicated to telling the story of each season as it unfolded, told with the same passion as the account of the final drive.

I’m not a numbers guy, which means I don’t feel that statistics should be a sole representation of a player’s total body of work.  Glennon runs heavy on stats for the individual matchups, but also presents each competitor in a light which accentuates their individual personalities and the intangibles that they brought to the field.

And what is made clear is what Brady has over the rest of the group is the ownership that he takes over not just the offense, but also the team, the franchise and the league.  None of the other players mentioned in this work were as charmed as Brady, but all had the opportunity to grasp the brass ring that is the National Football League, and to own it.

Only Brady did, and he still does.

Not Manning, not Elway, not Favre, Marino or Young.  Joe Montana had the cool factor like Brady, but even his intangibles fall short of Brady’s – which will become clear as you get further into the book.

The career of Tom Brady is the closest football will ever come to a reasonable argument of the theory of Randomness vs. Determinism, and that is the only argument left for anyone after reading this book.  Was the way Brady’s career unfolded a series of random accidents and karmic response or was it the product of a defined string of events that, given the conditions at the time, nothing else could have happened?

That’s a question for philosophy students, and probably shouldn’t be pondered until we can view his entire body of work when his career is done. But in the end, just like whether “it” was a fumble, these things don’t  matter because they are insignificant due to their ommision from history and record - and just get in the way of a really good story…

Tom Brady is the best Quarterback ever to lace up a pair of cleats, that much is made abundantly clear in this book.

He just is.