FOXBOROUGH , Mass. — The legend grows.
Maybe Tom Brady really can walk on water.
Tom versus Time?
Tom, at age 40, is not only winning, he’s dominating — Father Time staggered and in concussion protocol at the moment.
The Patriots quarterback, with his team firmly mounted on his back, is headed to his eighth career Super Bowl by virtue of Sunday’s scintillating 24-20 comeback win over the Jaguars in the AFC Championship game at a positively delirious jam-packed Gillette Stadium.
“When it’s all over,’’ a gutted Jaguars coach Doug Marrone told The Post on his slow walk to the team bus, “he’s going to go down as the greatest player of all time.’’
Brady, completing 26-of-38 for 290 yards and two touchdowns, led the Patriots back from deficits of 14-3 in the first half and 20-10 in the fourth quarter and now the Patriots (15-3) are in position to win their second consecutive Super Bowl and third in the last four years.
They’ll play the Eagles, who defeated the Vikings in the NFC Championship on Sunday, in Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4 in Minneapolis.
Thanks to Brady.
“After that Super Bowl comeback last year, you never count him out,’’ Patriots owner Robert Kraft said. “He’s done it for us so many times … we never give up hope.’’
If you listened to the frantic reports all week about Brady’s injured throwing hand, hurt on a botched handoff in Wednesday’s practice and requiring stitches, and you listened to the Patriots’ typical clandestine dissemination of (no) information, you weren’t sure if amputation was in order or if this was a gamesmanship ruse on the part of coach Bill Belichick.
Brady, after skipping scheduled press conferences Wednesday and Thursday, partook in a comical gathering with the media on Friday, wearing red gloves on both hands and refusing to say how the hand was hurt, how it felt or whether he thought he’d be able to play in the game.
Newscasts in New England, despite a government shutdown in Washington and many more important events taking place in the world, led with the state of Brady’s right hand — even though there really was no information on it.
“I said, ‘We’ll see,’ ’’ Brady told the Gillette crowd after the game in the trophy presentation. “So, how’d it go? I think pretty well.’’
Alas, when Brady first trotted out onto the field about 50 minutes before kickoff, he did so without a glove on the right hand, just some dark taping around the thumb area.
It didn’t take long before it was obvious the injury wasn’t affecting him at all. He was 6-for-6 for 57 yards on New England’s opening possession, which ended in a 31-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal.
“I assumed I was playing — really right up until today,’’ Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer said. “It was awesome to see him out there.’’
Brady, who completed his 54th fourth-quarter comeback and 11th in the playoffs, said he’s “never had anything like’’ this injury, adding, “I’ve had a couple crazy injuries, but this was pretty crazy.’’
As for his progress during the week, he said, “I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do on Wednesday, Wednesday night, and then Thursday wasn’t sure. And then Friday, [I] gained a little confidence and then Saturday was trying to figure out what we could do, and Sunday, try to come out here and make it happen.
“I think it sounds kind of arrogant to say, ‘Oh yeah, it bothered me,’ when we had a pretty good game. So, I wouldn’t say that. Doesn’t that sound arrogant if I said that? It’s like when Tiger Woods said, ‘That was my C game,’ and he won the tournament.’’
Leave it to life-of-the-party Belichick to douse the Brady story with cold water, saying in his typical deadpan: “Look, Tom did a great job and he’s a tough guy. We all know that, all right? But, we’re not talking about open-heart surgery here.’’
No, but Brady did rip the heart out of a game and an unafraid Jaguars team that had the Patriots right where they wanted … until Brady put his cape on and became Brady again.
His first trick was a six-play, 85-yard drive that took 1:07, climaxed by a 1-yard James White scoring run to cut the Jacksonville lead to 14-10 with 55 seconds remaining in the first half to change the momentum of a game that Jacksonville had been controlling.
Then came his 9-yard scoring pass to Danny Amendola to cut the Jaguars’ lead to 20-17 with 8:44 remaining in the game.
And finally, Brady won the game with a 4-yard scoring pass to Amendola with 2:48 remaining in the game.
“He’s a legend for a reason,’’ Jaguars defensive lineman Calais Campbell said.
By this time, any questions about his bloodied throwing hand had long before been answered.
The legend continues to grow. When (if?) it ends, no one knows.
New England Patriots Sportblog Tom Brady was vulnerable against the Jaguars – but he refuses to break A hand injury was supposed to hamper the New England quarterback but – as ever – he took apart the opposition when it mattered Tom Brady celebrates as he seals Super Bowl appearance No8. Photograph: Cj Gunther/EPA
“We’re not talking about open-heart surgery,” New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Sunday evening.
Belichick was talking about Tom Brady’s throwing hand, injured in practice last week. But Brady was pretty surgical as he carved apart the Jacksonville Jaguars on the way to his eighth Super Bowl. In a fourth quarter the Jaguars will never forget, he took away their heart and then he pulled the Super Bowl dream to which they so precariously clung those final few minutes, until it was gone for good.
Across America there was a familiar groan as it became clear the Patriots were on their way to another Super Bowl, off to face the Philadelphia Eagles in Minneapolis. Not the Patriots. Not again! After having been to just two Super Bowls before 2002, the Pats are heading to their eighth in 17 seasons. The plot rarely changes. Belichick’s secretive empire – one that has twice been caught cheating – and its dashing quarterback will dominate the lead-up to the America’s biggest game once again.
And yet for the first time since maybe the first championship run back in the winter of 2002, may actually attract some sympathy. The last months have not been easy for them. They headed into the postseason under a haze of rumors that cracks were appearing in the relationship between Belichick, Brady and owner Robert Kraft. Some of those suspicions were laid out in a lengthy ESPN story that focused – in part – on the looming passage of power from the 40-year-old Brady to the next quarterback. The story hinted at a possible breakup of the three. Then, last Wednesday, Brady somehow banged his throwing hand into running back Rex Burkhead at practice and the always-silent Patriots became extraordinarily evasive about Brady’s health.
For the first time in many years, the stoic and despised Pats looked … vulnerable.
This suspicion was confirmed when Brady looked unsure as he made some of his throws and his star tight end Rob Gronkowski was knocked from the game with a concussion and Jacksonville led 20-10 with under nine minutes left in the game. And then Brady became Brady and the Patriots became the Patriots and New England thundered back as they do so often. The precision with which Brady took apart the Jaguars defense was almost beautiful to watch as long as you didn’t realize he was slicing apart the Jags’ hearts as he broke those of the majority of the American public.
After going through an absurd monosyllabic press conference on Friday in which his injured hand – encased in a protective glove – was the topic of conversation, Brady seemed almost human on Sunday. He choked up as he talked about the coming Super Bowl being played in his mother’s home state (she has been battling cancer). When asked about his hand he said he has had worse pain from football injuries but admitted that he was concerned about the severity on Wednesday when it happened.
“I thought, ‘of all the plays my season can’t end on a handoff in practice,’” Brady said after the game in a rare admission of doubt.
The stitches were supposed to make it hard for him to throw. They were supposed to break him apart. But the Patriots machine does not break. They march through the second half of seasons and the playoffs with all the joy of a fleet of robots.
I remember the last time Brady and the Pats played Philadelphia in a Super Bowl. This was back in 2005 and to give context to Brady’s career, Donovan McNabb was the Eagles’ starting quarterback. Philadelphia has had five regular starters since then, including the current fill-in Nick Foles, who is back in Philadelphia for the second time.
After the game – won by who else? – I followed Brady as he went from the Pats locker room to an interview tent set up behind the stadium. He was 27 at the time and he and his team-mates were like teenagers as he turned to his friends and put a finger to his lip and said: “shhhhh” and the other young men put their fingers to their lips and said: “shhhhhh” too.
Who would have known then there would be so many more Super Bowls and he would be playing into his 40s and the Patriots would have remained intact, still hated by an America who had long tired of seeing them in their Super Bowls?
Brady looked so young that night, invulnerable. On Sunday he tried to hide his hand until the last possible moment. He barked at photographers who got too close to him before the game and he shook it several times after the Jags pass rushers knocked him to the ground. He looked every bit of 40 even if his passes didn’t show it.
For a few moments it almost made Brady and his team, well, likable.
Fantasy player of the week
Nick Foles. Really, who else could it be? Foles was supposed to be the reason the Eagles had no chance in these NFL playoffs, why the odds makers picked them to lose last week’s division round game to Atlanta and Sunday’s NFC championship game to Minnesota. Always unwanted and unappreciated, Foles stumbled back to Philadelphia for a second run with the team, this time as the backup to Carson Wentz. Then when Wentz went down with a torn ACL, Foles went to work
In Sunday’s 38-7 rout of the Vikings he completed 26-of-33 passes for 352 yards and three touchdowns against no interceptions. His passer rating of 141.4 was close to perfect. Mocked as a retread who would fumble the Eagles mighty offense he instead had the best day of all four quarterbacks left in this NFL season. Instead of being the reason the Eagles had no chance of going to the Super Bowl, he’s the reason they are going to the Super Bowl.
Stat of the week
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Danny Amendola was everywhere for the Patriots on Sunday. Photograph: Elsa/Getty Images
132. The number of combined yards for Danny Amendola on Sunday. He was everywhere for New England when they needed him most. As a receiver! The Patriots most-versatile offensive player caught two touchdown passes – the second of which was the game-winner. In total he had seven receptions for 84 yards. As a punt returner! He had the critical 20-yard punt return that set up the winning score. As a running back! He rushed for three yards. As a quarterback! He even threw a 20 yard pass to Dion Lewis that the running back actually wound up fumbling at the end, the Pats only turnover.
Amendola is the perfect Belichick player, one who can be used in several different ways depending on what the Pats need. When Rob Gronkowski was knocked out of the game with a concussion just before halftime, New England turned to Amendola to bail them out, partly playing his usual role and partly playing Gronkowski’s. Next to Brady, it’s the procession of Amendola-like players that have put the Patriots in eight Super Bowls since 2001.
Video of the week
gifdsports (@gifdsports) Bill Belichick treated that AFC Championship trophy like it was a piece of garbage LMAO pic.twitter.com/9HwmWqHy1H
What’s funnier than watching Belichick being handed a trophy he doesn’t want? The Patriots coach has famously had little use for the hunk of metal given to the AFC champions, more formally known as the Lamar Hunt Trophy. AFC title trophies are not Super Bowl trophies and since Belichick already has hoisted five of those in his time at New England, the trinket given for just getting to the big game has never held much appeal for him.
Of course, there are ways to gracefully accept such trophies … and then there’s Belichick’s way.
Quote of the week
“We’ve been the underdogs since the beginning of the season and we scratched and clawed to get to this point” – Philadelphia running back LeGarrette Blount on the Eagles making the Super Bowl.
It’s not exactly like Philadelphia were everybody’s underdogs all season. Many people believed they were the best team in the NFC East. That said, few believed they would be this good, going 13-3 in the regular season with a dominating offense and suffocating defense And even fewer believed they would go to the Super Bowl once Wentz went down and Foles became the quarterback.
Blount knows something about Super Bowls. He’s been to two of them with, of all teams, the Patriots and last year he was the Pats leading rusher. With the Eagles, Blount has been a key piece of an explosive offense, putting up 766 rushing yards. If nothing else, he will be able to give Philadelphia coaches a sense of what the Pats will try to do to win the Super Bowl.
Tom Brady says he didn't want his season to end on a handoff in practice. Bill Belichick adds that Brady played great, but "we're not talking about open-heart surgery." (0:44)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- When Tom Brady gashed his right thumb in practice four days ago, No. 12 required 12 stitches to repair the injury, league sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The New England Patriots' star quarterback immediately thought the worst.
"I thought, 'Of all the plays, my season can't end on a handoff in practice. I didn't come this far to end on a handoff,'" Brady said Sunday night after delivering a vintage comeback to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-20 in the AFC Championship Game.
Brady rallied from the injury and an 11-point deficit, adding another chapter in his storybook career. He played so well that he felt uncomfortable admitting the injury hindered him during the game.
"I think it kind of sounds arrogant to say, 'Oh, yeah, it bothered me,' when you have a pretty good game. So I won't say it," he said, smiling.
The cut on Tom Brady's hand was visible before their AFC title win. AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Brady used a Tiger Woods analogy, saying he didn't want to overdramatize the impact of the injury because it would've been like a young Woods saying he played his "C-game" and still won the tournament.
After practicing Friday with a red glove on his throwing hand, Brady shed the glove for the game and simply protected his right thumb with black tape.
Facing the league's top defense, Brady completed 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns -- both scoring passes to Danny Amendola in the fourth quarter. It was the 54th comeback win of his career.
Brady won his eighth AFC championship, hoping to add a sixth Super Bowl ring to his collection.
Coach Bill Belichick praised Brady's toughness, but he stopped short of calling it a miracle recovery.
Editor's Picks Tom Brady's age-defying brilliance is the best kind of problem It's not easy to avoid tension when a 40-year-old QB is breaking the mold of everything we know about football. But that's Tom Brady -- fresh on his way to another Super Bowl.
Johnson: Eagles want to beat 'pretty boy' Brady Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson said the team's mission in the Super Bowl is to beat "pretty boy" Tom Brady and "dethrone" the Patriots.
Guide to Super Bowl LII: Predictions, X factors, more for Eagles-Patriots New England will have its chance at ring No. 6 against Philadelphia, which will be playing for its first Lombardi trophy. Here's an initial look at their matchup with expert picks. 2 Related
"We're not talking about open-heart surgery," Belichick deadpanned.
After several days of thumb-related mystery, Brady shed some light on the injury, which occurred Wednesday in practice. He refused to say how many stitches it required, but he acknowledged there was concern.
"I never had anything like it," said Brady, who expects the stitches to be removed midweek. "I've had a couple of crazy injuries, but this was pretty crazy. I wasn't sure how I was going to do.
"Wednesday, Wednesday night, Thursday, I wasn't sure. Friday, gained a little confidence. Saturday, trying to figure out what we could do. Sunday, try to come out here and make it happen."
Amendola called Brady "the toughest guy I've ever met," but he said his close friend was "stressed out a bit. Physically, it's hard to throw with stitches in your thumb."
Brady called it "a little injury," but he acknowledged it was complicated for a quarterback because of its placement. He said he "wasn't sure what happened," but he reportedly collided with running back Rex Burkhead on a handoff.
"We ran into each other and my thumb just got bent back," Brady said on WEEI's "Kirk and Callahan Show" on Monday morning. "It wasn't his helmet or anything. It just kind of got bent back and that's why I thought it was a lot worse. The doctors checked it out and we did the things just to kind of check on everything. Fortunately there wasn't the damage that normally comes associated with that. I think we were very lucky."
"It's unbelievable what he does," Burkhead said. "The injuries he fights through and playing football at 40 years old is unreal. For him to do that and go out there and continue to make plays is unbelievable. It's why he's the greatest."
ESPN Patriots reporter Mike Reiss contributed to this report.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- As the clock wound down and Tom Brady found himself in the middle of another celebration, Tom Coughlin glanced at a television monitor and watched. He, nearly alone in the Jacksonville Jaguars organization, knows the singular feeling of toppling Goliath. As the Jaguars' braintrust waited for an elevator near the conveniently placed television, they all had received a fresh reminder of how very rare those moments are for Patriots opponents.
The absences are overcome, the deficits are erased and the confetti falls again. It is as much of a rhythm as the Patriots' up-tempo offense, as reliable as Brady's presence itself. Nobody ever seriously expected Brady to miss the AFC Championship Game after a practice injury, and nobody ever really thought the game was over, even when the Patriots trailed by 10 in the fourth quarter. The Patriots, with a 24-20 comeback victory over the Jaguars, are going to the eighth Super Bowl of the Brady and Bill Belichick era, with the astounding possibility that they will win their third title in four years for the second time in Brady's career.
It's understandable if Patriots fatigue is setting in anywhere south and west of Connecticut.
What should not take over is Brady weariness. He has the chance to become the first player to win six Super Bowls. The Patriots have mounted unlikelier title runs -- the first one, in 2001, when Brady was a novice, stands out -- but this one, if it is completed in two weeks in Minneapolis, will stand out for weirdness. It has been constructed entirely without Julian Edelman, around whom so much of the offense operates, and with a defense that had to be fixed on the fly after the first month. It had to reach the final stop without Brady's most devastating weapon, Rob Gronkowski, who did not play in the second half Sunday after suffering a head injury on a helmet-to-helmet hit late in the first half. And a bum hand was on the wheel. The Patriots essentially MacGyvered their way through the AFC title match.
"It didn't look good at 2-2, and you just keep showing up to work every day, and we sit in these chairs, and Coach Belichick gets up here and he demands a lot out of us, and he tries to get the most out of us every day," Brady said. "It's not always great. Sometimes it's pretty average, and then you're just trying to get better and better and get to the point where you can make the fourth quarter of a game and try to play well enough to get yourself into the next one."
They're on to the next one again, although the route this time nearly required a detour. Brady -- his right hand finally free of the strip of black tape that protected the stitches he received for a gash near his thumb on Wednesday -- admitted that he wasn't entirely sure when he suffered the injury on a botched handoff in practice that he would be able to play, or at least play effectively. If it had happened on his left hand, Brady said, he wouldn't have given it another thought. But it was on what is inarguably the most valuable hand in the league, the one that keeps the Patriots afloat through even the ugliest games, as this one was.
Belichick downplayed the severity, sarcastically noting that he wasn't "talking about open-heart surgery here." But Brady doesn't like to wear anything on his throwing hand, and even if he's had worse injuries, he hasn't had one as potentially annoying.
"I've never had anything like this," he said. "This was pretty crazy."
Brady joked that it was not all going to end because of a handoff in practice, of all things, but these are the kinds of misfortunes that cause hiccups for other teams and which the Patriots seem to find a way around. The Falcons witnessed it to excruciating effect a year ago -- another comeback, that time in Super Bowl LI, executed without Gronkowski. It was the Jaguars' turn this time, after holding an 11-point lead in the second quarter and a 10-point lead as the fourth quarter began. That the penalties were lopsided -- just one for the Patriots and six for the Jaguars -- or that the Jaguars seemed to lose confidence in Blake Bortles late are part of the conversation in the immediate aftermath of this game, but the common thread of all these years has been Brady covering up for a multitude of Patriots misfortunes.
For all the angst over Brady's well-being -- blood, stiches, gloves -- he completed 26 of 38 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns. A few passes sailed, but even Brady couldn't bring himself to say that the injury bothered him, worrying that it would sound arrogant to say he was impaired after he had such a good game.
It has been 18 years since Brady first arrived in New England, and there is an end of days feel to this season. Brady is 40, and the Patriots are going to have to replace two coordinators and perhaps more of their staff in the coming weeks. They have churned through players and coaches before -- Lawyer Milloy, Richard Seymour, Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis -- and survived, but in 2016, when the Patriots and Brady overcame his four-game suspension, there was a hard edge of vengeance about the season. On Sunday, Brady was more relaxed and reflective, unburdened by controversy and understandably relieved. His physical and mental toughness is unquestioned, but as much as Brady is currently winning the battle against time, it eventually comes for all athletes. He will play on as long as he is able, and the Patriots will have him as long as they can. But so much of the structure around him is about to change, and it is impossible to know how those adjustments will impact him. For a rare moment Sunday, Brady departed from the Patriots' ruthless focus on what is in front of them and looked back to marvel at the chance to duplicate that first early brick of a dynasty with a second one as he nears the end of the rainbow.
"I'd have thought you were crazy to think that, or I was crazy to think that," Brady said. "This has just all been -- I guess it's my life, so I'm living it, and it feels very natural and normal, just because I wake up every day and I feel very much the same as I did when I walked in here 18 years ago, I really do. It's a great privilege to play here, and it's a great privilege to play in the NFL, and I try to represent the team well, I try to represent my family, I try to do things the right way, and I'm very blessed. I could never imagine getting the kind of team achievements we've done and had. I mean, I don't think anyone can ever take those for granted. These are pretty amazing times for all of us -- fans included, players, coaches, everyone. It's very special."
The confetti remained on the field hours after the Patriots had gone home and the Jaguars had flown into their offseason. So much about the next two weeks will be familiar for the Patriots, providing them an unquestioned advantage over the Philadelphia Eagles, their opponents for Super Bowl LII. They have one more, too: Brady expects to get his stiches out this week.
Follow Judy Battista on Twitter @judybattista.
