It all comes down to Tom Brady.
The New England Patriots are going to the playoffs in one week, a clean slate upon which to write a new script for this season that's being perceived as disappointing. And it all comes down to Brady, regardless if he plays today in the regular-season finale in Houston.
However unfair that might be.
It all comes down to Brady because he is the quarterback, and quarterbacks always get most of the attention, even if it's always more complicated than that. It all comes down to Brady because he is the face of this franchise, right there with coach Bill Belichick, who has Brady's resume but none of his star quality. It all comes down to Brady because he's become one of the icons of American sport, courtesy of his superstar wife, his innumerable magazine covers, his cachet, and the fact he already has three Super Bowl rings on his fingers.
Maybe most of all, it all comes down to Brady because in our celebrity-obsessed culture it always comes down to the superstars, comes down to LeBron and Kobe, Tiger and A-Rod, Peyton and Brady.
That's just the way it is, the territory that comes with endorsements and magazine covers, the terrain superstars walk on, terrain that's always in the middle of the microscope.
No matter that Randy Moss is one day going to the Hall of Fame.
No matter that you can make a case that Wes Welker might just be the team's MVP up until now, the ultimate overachiever.
No matter that the defense is suspect, not the one we've been used to.
No matter that there have been rumors through much of the year that Brady is hurt more than anyone knows: finger, ribs, shoulder, a litany of woes that are thrown around on talk shows like passes in the wind.
It still all comes down to Brady.
There's little question that the Patriots look better when Brady plays well, as if his performance elevates everyone else, a football version of the rising water lifting all the boats. That is the nature of the position, certainly, but it's more than that, too. When Brady's on his game, he's the conductor who makes everyone else sound better.
Last week, he was on his game.
Some of that, no doubt, was the competition — the Jacksonville Jaguars — offering little of it. Even so, it was a reminder of how good Brady can be, how he is one of the few people on the planet who can take an NFL game and make it seem as if it's his ball, his field, his game. Going 23 for 26 will do that. Passing for 267 yards will do that.
Because this has not been the easiest of years for Brady, regardless of the record.
He is coming off knee surgery on his left leg, no small thing when you're an NFL quarterback and every time you throw you lead with your left leg in a game when big, athletic men are constantly trying to get in your face. No small thing when you know that one bad step, one bad hit, and it's last year all over again.
He also is coming off a year of sitting out, no small thing in any sport at any level, never mind the NFL. There's simply is nothing to simulate either the pace or the fury of the game.
Would it be any wonder that's it been a sort of transition year, any wonder that there have been times when Brady has looked something less than the Brady we've come to know?
Would it be any wonder that, if you hooked him up to the truth meter, he might disclose that this has not been the easiest of years?
It's easy to forget that sometimes in the wake of his unrelenting celebrity.
It's also easy to forget that he now chases his own myth, one of the most difficult things to do in sports.
He has raised the bar so high that we expect him to always be great, expect him to be TOM BRADY. We don't want to hear that the team's not as good, maybe he's hurt, whatever. We don't want to hear that he is now 32 and coming off a lost season. We don't want to hear that it might sometimes be difficult to be TOM BRADY. Kings don't make excuses.
Was it only coincidence that he had a great day last Sunday on an afternoon when the Pats looked as good as they have in over a month?
Was it only coincidence that on a day when he looked like the Brady of old, the Pats looked like the Pats of old? Maybe.
But when he is great, the offense looks appreciably better than it's looked the past month or so, and when the offense is better it takes pressure off the defense, and suddenly you can look at the Patriots and see them being a dangerous team in the playoffs, a team no one wants to play. Suddenly you look at the Patriots and can see the strengths, not just the obvious flaws.
It all comes down to Tom Brady.
Even if it's a lot more complicated than that.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.
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