National Football League

Brady, Belichick poised to set legacies

Published Feb. 4, 2012 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Four years ago, Tom Brady arrived in Phoenix riding an 18-0 high and feeling great about his chances in Super Bowl XLII. A fourth championship appeared to be within his reach. There was no way, after coming that far, Brady ever considered the Patriots could lose.

And then we, and Brady, discovered he was beatable.

Amid all the hoopla, Brady sat down with FOX's Terry Bradshaw and they started talking history. Bradshaw had his four Super Bowl rings, and on the biggest stage, he had never messed up. In his era, quarterbacks didn't throw for the numbers they do today — certainly not the record 50 touchdown passes Brady threw in 2007.

But, for the record, with 72 fewer attempts in four Super Bowls, Bradshaw really did outgun Brady, throwing for 932 yards to Brady's 1,001 and tossing nine touchdowns to Brady's seven. Bradshaw was a huge big-game performer. In fact, he might have played his best games on the biggest stage, considering he beat the Cowboys and Roger Staubach twice.

Yes, with a win against the New York Giants on Sunday, Brady can tie both Bradshaw and Joe Montana with a record fourth Super Bowl title.

But fans must remember that Bradshaw and Montana never lost in the big game. They were each 4-0; Brady would be 4-1 with a victory in Super Bowl XLVI.

This isn't meant as a knock on Brady, just the facts. All week, everyone has been talking about Peyton Manning's future in Indianapolis as his future is bordering on a Brett Favre-like, he-said/he-said saga with Colts owner Jimmy Irsay. Of those two quarterbacks, I have always preferred Brady over Peyton, and you can bet Brady will be driven Sunday to win another championship in the House that Peyton Built.

But back to my Bradshaw-Brady anecdote. Unlike this week, Brady was extremely confident in Arizona in '08. You sensed he believed the Giants couldn't beat him. Not so much the defense, but the belief that Eli Manning wasn't really good enough to beat New England's defense.

It turned out differently. Eli made the plays at the end, when the Patriots foolishly blitzed him and Plaxico Burress beat single coverage to the outside. That touchdown pass was like stealing.

But before the game, Bradshaw told Brady that someday there was going to be a quarterback-like Mount Rushmore. There would be mugs of Bradshaw and Montana up there, chiseled in stone, and soon, Brady thought, his.

"I can see all the Dallas fans throwing crap down on your head," Brady said to Bradshaw, fully aware of the historical significance.

"Yes, and all those Colts fans, all those Peyton Manning fans," Bradshaw said to Brady. "I can't imagine how many rocks they will be tossing at you. Who knows what they will do to your face on our mountaintop. I really hate to think about your pretty face being messed up."

Brady is one championship from immortality. And we all know how much it really means, winning it here against Peyton and Eli Manning.

Super Bowl XLVI: New England (15-3) vs. New York Giants (12-7)

Site: Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium

When: 6:30 p.m. ET, Sunday

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: The majority of the experts believe the wrong team is favored and that the Patriots should be the team getting three points. But we all know Vegas is smarter than the typical football writer.

We also know the Patriots' key to success revolves around their tight ends, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. This season, no NFL team had a wide receiver tandem that caught more passes than these two big men, who combined for 169 catches, 2,237 yards and 24 touchdowns. Gronkowski, the TD-record setter, will play despite a painful high left ankle sprain. Look for the Patriots to put him in motion to his right, which will lessen his push-off pain and also keep him in the slot, where he should be able to effortlessly run his seam routes. He must stay away from cutting and turning at high speeds.

The Giants, who will defend with a big nickel defense (three safeties and two cornerbacks) against New England, plan to jam Gronkowski at the line and hope to make him as uncomfortable as possible and maybe unable to restart.

The Giants believe if they can limit the tight ends, who both made touchdown catches in New England's 24-20 regular season loss to New York, they can handle 122-catch Wes Welker, who tends to be Brady's safety valve.

What's interesting about this tight end angle is that Eli Manning finally gained some confidence in his new tight end, Jake Ballard, in the win over the Patriots. Ballard caught a 30-yarder and eventually three more passes, including a touchdown. Against San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game, New York actually used a three-tight end alignment at times as Travis Beckum finally became a useful target at the end of the season. That development definitely helped Manning's game because the Patriots truly fear his three wide receivers, Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham. The Patriots can't single cover any of them, and their only chance is to confuse Manning and maintain a solid pass rush. Yes, New England played better defense against Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game, but the Giants are a lot better on offense than the Ravens.

The main context of this game is that New York’s pass rush, which took down Brady four years ago in the Super Bowl, will raise its dominating head again and make Brady flinch. Brady is definitely mindful of how fierce and versatile the New York defense can be, but I doubt he will be ducking it Sunday.

Still, the most critical performers for New England will be offensive linemen Matt Light, Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer. They face a New York front seven that amassed 20 sacks in the Giants' five-win streak since being 7-7. These seven guys are multifaceted performers, and their health was a huge reason for the Giants' end-of-season dominance.

The Giants believe they can capitalize on mismatches up front to get to Brady, believing they don't have to worry nearly as much about New England's running game of BenJarvus Green-Ellis as they did the 49ers' Frank Gore. What has hurt the Patriots is that Kevin Faulk is no longer the great third-down receiving threat he has been in years past. That's why Gronkowski and Hernandez are so essential to New England's chances.

On the flip side, the Giants are better out of the backfield with Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs. Bradshaw practiced two days this week on his bad right foot and should be effective as a receiver and short-yardage runner. The Pats have no one who can stick with Bradshaw in pass coverage unless they opt not to cover the Giants' tight ends.

What the Patriots are lacking against Eli Manning is the missing pass rush of Andre Carter. Yes, Mark Anderson picked up Carter's slack, but the Patriots will have to scheme up front to apply constant pressure on Manning, who has seemed oblivious to the pressure, especially in his road playoff wins over the Packers and Niners. Brady, who will work out of the shotgun a lot, criticized his own performance in the win over Baltimore and threw two interceptions in the regular season loss to the Giants. There is enormous pressure on him to play an error-free game this time around, and there's no doubt he's capable of doing so.

Finally, the special teams appear to be evenly matched, and both punters have been solid down the stretch. Although, I wouldn't be surprised to see Belichick gamble with an onside kickoff at some point.

CZAR'S SCOOP: Although both teams had very involved owners in the resolution of the collective bargaining agreement negotiations and the 10-year extension that followed, the general sentiment in league circles is that a lot of people are rooting for Patriots owner Bob Kraft to win a fourth Super Bowl.

Nothing against John Mara and Steve Tisch, but Kraft helped close the deal with the players while dealing with the death of his wife, Myra. His team dedicated this season to her memory. And the player Kraft hugged when the agreement was finalized was Colts center Jeff Saturday. And where is this Super Bowl being played? In Saturday's home stadium, of course.

Belichick will turn 60 this year, and a couple of writers have hinted he might want to retire soon if he wins a fourth Super Bowl and tie Pittsburgh's Chuck Noll. One thing Belichick definitely will do is change the name of his Nantucket boat, which is currently called V Rings (two with the Giants; three with the Pats). Bill wants it to be VI Rings. The coach again amazed this week with his attention to detail on Wednesday, when he took his team off the practice field for 31 minutes to simulate what the extra time will be like because of Madonna's halftime show.

There is no question the most emotional New York defender this season was safety-turned-cornerback Antrel Rolle, who had an up-and-down coverage season. So much so, he wanted out at times this season. And don't forget it was Rolle who was chasing 49ers tight end Vernon Davis on his long touchdown run in the championship game. He must play better Sunday.

For what it's worth, of the two teams, the Giants have been visibly more loose all week — to the point that some have viewed them as cocky or overly confident. However, Belichick has been very loose this week, too, and more candid than he generally is this time of year. His ego was stunned four years ago in Arizona by these same Giants, a team he still has many fond memories of as an assistant coach. He must believe it's not going to happen again.