Tom Brady: Already Immortalized in Boston Sports History

When you are a three-time Super Bowl champion, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, a two-time league MVP, an eight-time Pro-Bowler and a two-time First Team All-Pro selection, you really don't have a whole lot more to prove.

When you are also a 10-time AFC East champion, a five-time AFC conference champion, a 23-time AFC Offensive Player of the Week and a 12-year veteran having spent every season with the same franchise, you have generally already etched your place in history.

Tom Brady may have already carved out his place in history, and it's tough to argue with those accolades. In recent seasons, however, voices both around the league and within the New England Patriots fan base have started to question not only if Brady will bring another championship to Foxboro, but whether he deserves to be considered the greatest of all time.

I cannot make a hard claim that he is the greatest of all time, but his recent contract extension certainly immortalizes him in the lure of Boston sports history. Old timers may always be hesitant to open the door to that shrine — and it's incredibly rare that we justifiably swing that door open — but number twelve had the keys in his back pocket all along.

I'm talking about guys like Bobby Orr. Bill Russell. Larry Bird. Ted Williams. Johnny Pesky. Cam Neely. Ray Bourque. Pedro Martinez. The list spreads throughout a century of teams in Boston, but we are hard-pressed to find many qualified suitors that come from the past decade or so.

Tom Brady isn't just included in this list. He headlines it. Whether he wins another title, several more titles or none at all, the facts remain unchanged and his spot remains saved.

Brady's new extension is a significant pay cut. No, I'm not saying the guy is living in poverty because of his new deal. But let's be rational here. The sports industry of the modern day overpays athletes. That's the nature of the business. And when it comes down to it, you're paying that cable bill along with millions of other people to tune in on Sunday afternoons. You're buying the products that are advertised during commercial breaks. You're paying the athletes. So let's calm down when we complain about how much they make.

Sure, Tom Brady increased his guaranteed money over the remainder of his contract. Of course he increased it. The contract lasts three more years than it did last week. If he didn't increase the money figures while adding three years to the deal, he'd be one hell of a poor negotiator. He's making big bucks, but he's not making what he could make. He's not making what Joe Flacco will likely make. He's making what your average-to-slightly-above-average quarterback makes. And that isn't a description of Tom Brady.

Call it a hometown discount if you want, but Brady decided to put the team before himself once again. When the Patriots won their three Super Bowls, the team came first as well. Everyone remembers the amazing defense and subpar offense that Brady captained during those glory days. And because some truly special defensive players retired and the franchise suffered a horrendous drafting lapse from 2006-2009, some people have had the audacity to blame Brady for making the Patriots into an offensive juggernaut without a defense. They have called him a pretty boy. They have said he lost his touch.

Erroneous on all accounts. Take a closer look at reality.

The reality of the situation is that Tom Brady has become a better quarterback with every season that has passed in his career, with a few rare spikes upward along the way. 2007 was magical. 2010 was superhuman. And every other season was merely brilliant. The Patriots — possibly due to an increasing dependence on their star QB — fell apart in the aspect of building a winning roster for a few seasons. For the past eight years, fans have constantly wondered why the Pats haven't won another Super Bowl. The answer is very simple.

They haven't had the best team. In every season since 2004 except for the 2007 campaign, the Patriots have not had the best team in the NFL. That's why they haven't won it all. They've had the best quarterback, or at least one of the top three. But the team hasn't been up to par with him.

And now the quarterback is scaling himself down on the salary sheet to make room for the key pieces the roster needs to return to greatness. So many rosters around the NFL have experienced the same type of drop-off after signing a Super Bowl-winning quarterback to a big contract. The Patriots were one of those examples. Fortunately for New England, Brady sees the big picture.

A few million more is so mind-blowingly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, especially when Tom's wife makes more than he does. He most certainly could have rode out his contract and made huge dollars somewhere else to round out his career and wash up on a losing shore. We've seen it time and time again from athletes at the tail end of their careers.

Tom Brady falls into the top of the class when it comes to heroes in Boston sports. From the winning standpoint, the statistics standpoint, the memories standpoint, the loyalty standpoint, and the dedication standpoint. Brady is a true Patriot for life, and that alone puts him into a unique class.

Let me reiterate my earlier sentiment — Tom Brady's place in that shrine of Boston sports legends is cemented. Etched in stone. This is the case even if he fails to win a title in the next five seasons.

Why? Because he lives for this franchise and this fan base, even if some continue to doubt that. In a world where athletes skip town to chase money, to chase rings or to live life in a tropical area, the California boy has never shown the slightest inkling of wanting to leave town. Not when hall-of-famers left the team, not when rookies flooded the locker room, and not when he fell short for the eighth consecutive season. He'd rather fall short for 13 consecutive seasons right here in Foxboro than to tarnish that legacy by signing a deal with anyone else. Continuity, especially with a quarterback and coach together, is a rare thing in today's game. What Brady has done is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

Ray Bourque spent 21 outstanding seasons with the Boston Bruins, captaining them for many of those years. He built a truly legendary legacy in the Garden. His number hangs from the rafters, and he is one of the most beloved athletes Boston has ever called their own. We didn't let the lack of a Stanley Cup cloud our judgment of what a special person, competitor, athlete and hometown hero #77 was. We realized that he was a very special player whose teams just didn't have the perfect formula to reach the promised land.

Why would anyone think it's different with Brady? Winning championships in professional sports is an amazing feat. There are 32 teams in the NFL that claw at each other's throats for 17 weeks each season. We were spoiled by the Patriots' collection of three rings in four years, and some fans have allowed that to skew their perception of reality when it comes to TB12.

Boston has never known another football athlete with a higher standing than Tom Brady. It has known very few athletes across the board with a higher standing than Brady. Many of you already realize this, but I wish to issue a disclaimer for those who have lost faith in our "golden boy."

The shrine of Boston sports legends has added another figure. He's already near the top, and there's nothing that can happen in the next five seasons to bring him down.

Assessing the Legacy of Tim Thomas in Black and Gold

On Thursday afternoon, the Boston Bruins parted ways with a player that made fans hold their breath, experience heart palpitations, cry tears of joy and eventually scratch their heads in disbelief during his eight years wearing the black and gold.

Tim Thomas is headed to New York to become a member of the Islanders.  The B's will get a conditional second-round pick in return; that is, the pick will only be given to Boston if Thomas either plays a game for the Islanders or is traded by the club.

But let's forget the details of the trade and instead consider the player that has moved on.  Tim Thomas is a Michigan boy who played his college hockey right here in New England at the University of Vermont.  Thomas always believed that he was NHL material, but his chances continued to slip away as the years trickled on.  It wasn't until the goaltender was 28 years old that he finally made his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.

October 19, 2002.  Thomas stopped 31 of 34 shots fired by the Edmonton Oilers in his first career victory.  Eleven days later, he stopped 33 of 35 pucks against the Washington Capitals for his second win in as many chances.  But that would be his last action until April, when he went 1-1 in two more starts to round out his campaign.

Thomas didn't see the ice again at the NHL level until the 2005-2006 season.  It was January 10, 2006 — nearly three years since his last appearance with the Bruins.  And as luck would have it, he gave up one goal on seven shots in a relief appearance against the Sharks.  That goal was the game-winner, and Thomas was handed the loss.

At this point in the goaltender's career, all hope may have been lost.  Thomas was 31 years old the day of that game in 2006, and he was set to turn 32 in April.  He'd never sustained any work in the NHL, having appeared in just five games.  He had been battling, and would continue to battle, for starting nods against the likes of Andrew Raycroft, Hannu Toivenen, Manny Fernandez and eventually Tuukka Rask.  After all, why would the Bruins commit to a 30-something year-old goalie with so much promising young talent in the mix?

Peter Chiarelli — who was hired as the Bruins' general manager in May of 2006 — had figured it out.  He realized that Raycroft, Toivenen and Fernandez weren't keepers.  He shipped Andrew Raycroft to Toronto for Tuukka Rask before the 2006 entry draft (how about that trade, eh?).  The following season, Thomas played in a career-high 66 games for the Bruins in what marked the moment that Boston put their faith in the journeyman.

In that same off-season, the Bruins — technically being managed by interim GM Jeff Gorton at the time — reeled in what became one of the franchise's biggest free agent signings in history.  The club inked Zdeno Chara, previously of the Ottawa Senators (the same team that Chiarelli had been working for) to a five-year, $37.5 million deal.  Chara, as you know, has worked out.

Back to Thomas.  The goaltender played well in his first two seasons as the number one, but it wasn't until his third season that he really began to write his legacy.  In the 2008-09 season, Thomas was downright spectacular in a Vezina trophy-winning campaign.  He posted a 36-11-7 record, a 2.10 goals against average and a .933 saves percentage.  The Bruins fell short in the playoffs, though, in a Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The following season, we got another one of those messages that it just might not be in the cards for Thomas to reach sustained stardom.  After starting the season as the club's top goaltender, young sensation Tuukka Rask — the goaltender acquired in the trade that originally opened the door for Thomas in 2006 — seized the starting job from him.  Rask had only appeared in five NHL games prior to the start of that season, but his numbers justified the switch.  Tuukka posted a 22-12-5 record with a gaudy .931 saves percentage and a microscopic 1.97 goals against average.  The latter two statistics led the NHL.  His collapse, though, came in an infamous series against the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.  Boston had a 3-0 series lead, and... well, need we revisit history?  I think not.

Nonetheless, Rask was the starter.  The key piece of the trade that opened the door for Thomas in Boston had come back a few years later to seemingly close it.  Tuukka was the franchise goalie, and that was that.  Thomas would be a backup for what was left of his wacky, roller-coaster career.  That's what any sane person would have thought, anyway.

At the start of the next season, Rask was the definite starter, fresh off a stellar campaign riddled by a haunting Game 7 loss.  Thomas was the backup.  The exact opposite circumstances from the previous season's beginning.  And, quite eerily, the season progressed in a similar way as well.

Thomas stole the starting job from Rask — at no great fault of the young goaltender — when he stood on his head game after game en route to establishing the Bruins as a powerhouse.  Chiarelli had finally built a winning formula with a few years in the business, and the wild style of Thomas seemed to perfectly complement his squad.  In one of the best regular seasons a goaltender has ever had — ignoring the historic playoff run that awaited — Thomas posted a 35-11-9 record with a .938 saves percentage and a 2.00 goals against average.  He had nine shutouts.

I won't get cliché and start poetically depicting the Stanley Cup run that ensued, but you all know the story's ending.  Thomas won the Conn Smythe trophy with ease in the 2011 playoffs, posting an absurdly impressive .940 saves percentage and 1.97 goals against average.  He went 16-9 in those 25 games, posting four shutouts and winning three Game 7's.

The following season was a struggle filled with controversies, quirks and disappointments, and it was the final season Thomas would ever play for the Bruins.  That isn't what I wish to focus on, though.  This goaltender deserves better than that.  This goaltender deserves to have his best moments discussed, not his worst.

Tiny Thompson.  Frank Brimsek.  Frank Brimsek.  Gerry Cheevers.  Gerry Cheevers.  Tim Thomas.

Those were the goaltenders for the Bruins in their six Stanley Cup championship seasons.  Brimsek and Cheevers each won it twice.  Thompson and Thomas won it once.  And whether old-timers want to admit it or not, our weird, anti-Obama, crazy-flopping goaltender of the new age belongs right in the mix with those other guys as one of the best Bruins goalies of all-time.

Of all six winning teams, Thomas's team snapped the longest drought in the franchise's history.  It had been 39 years since the Bruins had won a Stanley Cup, and Timmy put the team on his back for an entire season.  He may not have won as many Cups as Brimsek or Cheevers, but one could argue it may have been the best performance in the most significant win of the six.

When it comes to individual accolades, Thomas reeled in two Vezina trophies.  Tiny Thompson collected four during his tenure with the Bruins, Brimsek gathered two, and Cheevers didn't win one.  For his career, Thomas showcases a goals against average of 2.48.  While that is a far cry from Tiny Thompson's 2.08 career GAA, it remains better than the 2.70 and the 2.89 averages held by Brimsek and Cheevers, respectively.  Thomas has a career saves percentage of .921, but saves percentage wasn't consistently calculated during the careers of the other three goalies.

I cannot sit here and argue that Tim Thomas is the best goalie of all-time.  I can't even argue confidently that he is the best to ever wear the spoked B on his chest.  But what is undeniable is that he belongs in the conversation.  He belongs in the same class as those Bruins' greats, regardless of his quirky antics off the ice.  He acted up a bit in his final days in Boston, but consider the bigger picture.  Consider what the man has been through.  He will be 39 years old in April.  He fought until he was 31 just to get a legitimate shot in the NHL.  Most goalies would call it quits.  Most athletes would call it quits.  Lingering in the minors is no fun, especially when you're the only one in the locker room who is almost a decade removed from college.

Thomas stuck with it.  He never gave up.  And pardon me if I'm over-simplifying, but Bruins fans ought to be damn happy he never gave up.  Because if he had, that Stanley Cup drought would be approaching 41 years this spring.

Tim Thomas may never play a game for the Islanders.  He may never play another game in the NHL.  But as we begin the post-Thomas era, choose not to reflect on his actions in politics, the media or anything else.

Instead, reflect on his actions on the ice.  Those are the ones that made him an ever-lasting piece of Bruins history.