Patriots: Chris Simms has worst Tom Brady-Aaron Rodgers take imaginable
By Jerry Trotta
Some people just insist on belittling former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s accomplishments.
At this point, we’re running out of words to describe Tom Brady, who dethroned the No. 1 seed Packers in the NFC Championship Game this past weekend to advance to the 10th (!) Super Bowl of his esteemed career.
That achievement at age 43 is gargantuan in and of itself, but the Buccaneers are also set to become the first team in league history to host a Super Bowl. While Patriots fans probably feel nostalgic (among other things) watching their former quarterback take another team to the promised land, anybody finding ways to slander him amid this run has simply lost the plot.
Like with any symbolic sports star, you’ll come across asinine fans on social media trying to minimize Brady’s success. In this instance, however, it was NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms that traveled down that slippery slope, unleashing a scorching take that implied that Brady has needed a complete team to win at the highest level throughout his career.
In doing so, Simms tried to pin Aaron Rodgers as the victim, declaring that the Packers gunslinger “needed to be perfect” in order to pull it off.
Last night was a microcosm of Brady & Rodgers careers. Brady needed to be good and had a team around him. Rodgers needed to be perfect. And he was damn close
— Chris Simms (@CSimmsQB) January 25, 2021
Did anybody else give that tweet a double take to make sure that Simms wasn’t trolling Brady on purpose? We certainly did, and he was unfortunately being dead serious. Again, the Packers nabbed the No. 1 seed in the NFC after finishing 13-3 and logging the third-best point differential (+140) of any team in the league.
They were dominant on both sides of the ball and had the privilege of playing in front of 9,000 fans — in the middle of a pandemic, no less — to punch a ticket to the Super Bowl and came up short. Is it really Brady’s fault that Rodgers had tunnel vision for Davante Adams and looked shell shocked once he entered the red zone? Or that a number of awful coaching decisions that Rodgers couldn’t seem to override decided the game?
Rodgers’ numbers were nothing to scoff at, but if you watched the game you know that Brady was the superior player in the big moments. We say that despite the fact that the former Patriot threw three second-half interceptions.
Wow. I didn’t realize TB had a much better team than GB, the #1 seed https://t.co/FeDda7viHG
— Lou Merloni (@LouMerloni) January 25, 2021
You also can’t fault Rodgers that Green Bay opted against supplying him with more weapons over the last couple of seasons, but go take a look at earlier in his career. Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings and Randall Cobb formed one of the best receiving corps in the league for a handful of years, and they had one championship (and Super Bowl appearance altogether) to show for it.
Brady, while enduring notable roster turnover every few seasons and never having the benefit of throwing to a star-studded WR corps outside of the Randy Moss era (which lasted less than four seasons), went to nine Super Bowls and won six rings.
We hate to slight Rodgers. Everyone would agree that he’s one of the greatest quarterback talents to ever grace the NFL. However, Simms victimizing him by implying that he’s had to play perfect every step of the way in his career, and especially this past Sunday, is the worst Brady-Rodgers take we’ve ever heard.
