Nick Wright resorts to stats that didn’t happen to discredit Tom Brady’s AFC Championship performance
"The narrative surrounding Tom Brady today, not his legacy or career but his performance last night, is so dramatically different if Dee Ford lines up 6 inches back like he's supposed to." — @getnickwright pic.twitter.com/PrNqICVqQ8
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) January 21, 2019
Tom Brady’s last-minute interception against the Chiefs didn’t count, but one of the most notorious Tom Brady haters is just saying it counts.
Nick Wright is pointing right to the biggest break of the night for the Patriots in Sunday’s 37-31 win over the AFC Championship Game, and he’s using it to take away from what Tom Brady accomplished after he got that break. Of course, he’s pointing to Dee Ford’s immensely costly offside penalty that negated an interception by Chiefs safety Daniel Sorensen that would’ve very likely sealed a 28-24 win for the Chiefs.
Wright is obsessed with narratives and often creating some of his own, so he came up with a little fan fiction and gave the Chiefs and Brady the interception. It would’ve been Brady’s third of the game and, if his night ended there, he would’ve ended up with a 63.2 passer rating and a loss. Wright is basically pretending that happened.
“The narrative surrounding Tom Brady today – not his legacy, not his career, but his performance last night – is so dramatically different if Dee Ford lines up six inches back like he’s supposed to,” says Wright on Monday’s episode of First Things First on FOX Sports 1.
Just one problem. Ford did line up offside. So they’d be better suited talking about the stats that ended up on the actual stat sheet.
There’s no question that the Patriots got a huge break for Ford to be offside on that particular play. But it’s also indicative of the Patriots being more focused and mentally tough in that moment than the Chiefs. Can you really say that was a break for Bill Belichick, who clearly had his offense more ready for that ending than Andy Reid did with the Chiefs defense? No, but Wright will certainly use it to discredit Brady, taking an entire segment to do so while spending about five seconds giving the “GOAT disclaimer.”
“I am not a Tom Brady skeptic on what he’s accomplished,” Wright said. “He is the greatest quarterback ever, and he’s lapped the field at this point. But there are lucky bounces, and there are institutional and infrastructure advantages.”
Jan 20, 2019; Kansas City, MO, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) celebrates with Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman (11) during the second half of the AFC Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
So Wright (and perhaps others) are now going to say Brady had this huge advantage in the “team around him” department? There’s a reason Wright and so many other talking heads strongly doubted their ability to win even one playoff game this year. So that last take is actually kind of embarrassing.
Another questionable take came from Cris Carter, who claimed that all three interceptions would’ve been Tom Brady’s fault. His first was definitely one of his worst throws of the season, but the other two clanged off the hands of his receivers. Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski should’ve made the plays. But they ultimately did when it mattered in the end, anyway.
Get ready for two weeks of this now. And then if Brady and the Patriots work their way to a sixth Lombardy Trophy in Atlanta, Wright and everyone else can dig around for the next set of excuses.
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