A Touch of Joe

BOSTON —  New England’s Tom Brady is Mr. Reliable. He has an unblemished record in the playoffs and the lowest postseason interception percentage of any active NFL quarterback. With Brady starting, the Patriots are 26-4 in games played after Nov. 1.

Funny, then, that Brady would be caught so unprepared for the clutch moment of his first NFL playoff game.

Then again, he was 4.

Brady and his father were at Candlestick Park in January 1982 for the NFC championship game involving San Francisco and Dallas, when the 49ers won with “The Catch,” a last-gasp touchdown pass from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark.

“I think I was whining the whole first half because my dad wouldn’t buy me one of those foam fingers,” said Brady, 26, who grew up in San Mateo as a 49er fan. “I don’t think I enjoyed much of the second half, and then when Joe threw that touchdown pass to Dwight Clark, everyone jumped up and I couldn’t see anything. I was crying the whole way home, not realizing that that was probably the most significant play in San Francisco 49ers’ history.”

Twenty-two years later, Brady is putting his mark on league history, reminding a lot of people of Montana. Both were somewhat overlooked in the draft; Montana was a third-round pick and Brady was taken in the sixth. Like Montana, Brady was a skinny kid who developed an uncanny feel for sliding away from pressure and finding the right receivers. Both are everyday Joes who vastly prefer hanging out with offensive linemen to getting the special treatment normally afforded star quarterbacks. Both are enormously competitive.

“To use a golf analogy, they don’t try to overpower the game,” said offensive lineman Randy Cross, who spent his career blocking for Montana. “Everything kind of flows ....Nobody at this point should ever be compared to Joe, but Tom’s got a fairly good jump-start on his resume. He’s got a Super Bowl MVP and Lombardi Trophy in his cabinet. That’s not bad.”

Being mentioned in the same breath as his boyhood idol leaves Brady humbled and wide-eyed.

“He’s the best of all time,” Brady said. “Joe Montana was everything. Everything he did was great. He threw the ball great. He managed the game great. He made his other players great. He really had some great qualities. I think, as a quarterback, you have to emulate some of those qualities.”

So is Brady great? Wait.

That’s essentially what Patriot Coach Bill Belichick said when asked to compare the two.

“They’re both right-handed quarterbacks,” Belichick deadpanned. “You’re talking about Joe Montana. The guy is a Hall of Fame quarterback. He’s won however many Super Bowls he’s won. How many guys can you compare to him?”

Brady finished third in this year’s Associated Press most-valuable-player voting, an award selected by 50 members of the media. Brady, who trailed co-MVPs Steve McNair of Tennessee and Peyton Manning of Indianapolis, is 2-0 against the Titans this season and 1-0 against the Colts, who play the Patriots Sunday at Gillette Stadium for the AFC title.

Much of the focus this week building up to the AFC championship game has been on Manning, who has been on a jaw-dropping roll in the playoffs. In two postseason games, he has thrown almost as many touchdown passes (eight) as incomplete passes (12). The Colts have averaged 456.5 yards in victories over Denver and Kansas City and didn’t punt in either of those games. Manning, the former No. 1 pick who had failed to win a playoff game before this season, has been spectacular.

Manning’s supporting cast of Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison is vastly better than that of his Patriot compatriot, although Brady is backed by a vaunted New England defense.

The showdown of Brady vs. Manning is not unlike the 1985 Super Bowl matchup of Montana vs. Miami’s Dan Marino -- and Montana won that one.

Brady numbers have a Montana-like quality. He’s 7-0 in overtime games and 15-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less.

“He just reminds me of that guy that you really don’t want to have the ball with two minutes to go and they’re behind,” Indianapolis Coach Tony Dungy said. “It seems that no matter how the game has gone, no matter how he’s thrown, no matter what’s happened, he wants that ball and he seems to have a way of making it happen, and his team believes it’s going to happen.”

Montana made the players around him better. Brady does that -- and he makes his coach better too.

Belichick was a losing coach in four of five seasons with the Cleveland Browns and his first year as coach of the Patriots. He was 42-58 in the first 100 games he coached. Since Brady became the starter, Belichick is 38-12 and this season was voted the league’s coach of the year.

Maybe one story about Brady speaks more than all the numbers. As a rookie in 2000 and the No. 4 quarterback at training camp, he bumped into Patriot owner Robert Kraft.

Brady introduced himself -- even though Kraft already knew a lot about him -- then, in an uncharacteristically bold moment, told the owner, “Drafting me was the best decision the Patriots ever made.”

Almost four years later, the encounter still brings a smile to Kraft’s face.

“You know what,” Kraft said, “he might just be right.”

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Not Easy Pickings

Tom Brady of New England and Peyton Manning of Indianapolis have the lowest interception percentages in the playoffs (minimum of 100 attempts) among active quarterbacks. A look:

*--* Player Team(s) Att Int Pct. Tom Brady New England 138 1 0.72 Peyton Manning Indianapolis 161 2 1.24 Donovan McNabb Philadelphia 238 5 2.10 Vinny Testaverde Cleveland, N.Y. Jets 190 5 2.63 Neil O’Donnell Pittsburgh, Tennessee 275 8 2.91

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Extra Stuff

Brady and Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw have undefeated records in overtime games, including the playoffs (minimum of five games):

*--* Player Team(s) W-L Pct. Tom Brady New England 7-0 1.000 Terry Bradshaw Pittsburgh 5-0 1.000 Ken Stabler Oakland, Houston, New Orleans 6-1 857 Jake Plummer Arizona, Denver 5-1 833 Jim Kelly Buffalo 6-2 750 Ken O’Brien N.Y. Jets, Philadelphia 4-1-1 750

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Source: NFL.com