Kyle Van Noy faced Max Kellerman on ESPN’s First Take

Patriot players Kyle Van Noy and Sony Michel dropped by ESPN to challenge Max Kellerman on some of the “First Take” host’s hot takes on Tom Brady.

ESPN’s “First Take” host Max Kellerman – famously of New York City, New York – stubbornly refused all season long to back down from his infamous comments regarding Tom Brady’s perceived decline. The outspoken color commentator and television rabble-rouser repeatedly declared that Brady was overdue to fall off a “cliff,” and that the end was indeed nigh for the 41-year-old Patriots quarterback.

So much for that take.

Of course, the New England Patriots went on to win Super Bowl 53 and Tom Brady earned a record-shattering sixth championship ring. Kellerman, obstinate as ever, stuck to his position… though he did allow Brady’s teammates, Kyle Van Noy and Sony Michel, to appear on his program and have a chance to respond to some of the criticisms.

“I’ll take his wet-noodle arm any day,” Van Noy told Kellerman, responding to the latter’s question on whether or not Brady was in decline. “He’s good at what he does. He’s an excellent communicator… he gets everybody orchestrated and runs the offense to the best of his ability with Josh McDaniels. We know as a defense we just need to keep giving him the ball.”

Brady’s stat-line in the Super Bowl was underwhelming: he completed 21 of 35 passes for just 262 yards, a pick, and no touchdowns. But when the Patriots needed him to put together a game-winning drive, he delivered, picking apart the Los Angeles Rams defense with pinpoint throws to Julian Edelman and a perfectly-tossed ball to Rob Gronkowski that set up the game’s only touchdown.

“We knew if we kept getting stops, we knew they were going to score; and they eventually did, and we won the game… again,” Van Noy added with an impish grin, rubbing further salt in the wound for Kellerman.

First Take’s Molly Qerim tries to steer the interview around to Sony Michel, but Kellerman can’t contain his disgust, muttering off-camera: “(It) just makes me sick.”

Fittingly, Van Noy gets the last laugh on Kellerman, turning to Michel and observing, “He’s so mad.”

Maybe one day Kellerman will be right in his bleak assessments on Brady’s decline. But at least for one more year, the native New Yorker was made to look foolish for ever doubting Brady and the Patriots.