Tom

The Pats are down 8 to the Denver Broncos late in the 4th quarter at Mile High. The 2015-16 AFC Championship is on the line in what has clearly become Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning’s final season. Tom Brady isn’t supposed to win this one, and the game, thus far, has played out accordingly.

Manning’s arm is shot but it’s a down year for the Pats’ defense. He can’t put enough on the ball to throw into tight windows; instead, he’s picking spots on the field and throwing into space, relying on his receivers to adjust before the Pats' defensive backs. It’s unseasonably warm for a January game in Denver where Manning’s rival, Brady, has traditionally struggled. This game should've been played in New England, but injuries in the last third of the regular season caused the Pats to literally limp to the finish line with the 2 seed in the conference.

Manning only completes 17 passes for 176 yards but all of them seem to come at the right times. Everybody knows he’s retiring after the season and he uses his stardom and the home crowd to his advantage, throwing into coverage enough to make the referees think about throwing a flag on the Pats’ defense. From an NFL perspective, a washed-up Manning leading the Broncos to victory with half an arm played better than the Patriots returning to the Super Bowl to defend their fourth title in search of a fifth.

While the 2015-16 season was Manning’s swan song, Brady had more to prove than ever. Despite entering the year as a four-time Super Bowl winner, Brady remained the focus of another Patriots cheating scandal over deflated footballs from the previous postseason. Thanks to legal maneuvering, Brady was able to delay an inevitable suspension from the league to start the 2015 season. Deflate-gate drama garnered international coverage, threatening to tarnish his legacy. His apparent successor, Jimmy Garappolo, was waiting to take his place.

Somehow, Brady seemed to block it all out, leading his team to another division title, a first round bye, and a showdown with his arch rival on the road. The Pats entered the AFC title game with a banged up, undersized receiving core. Their starting running back was an ancient Steven Jackson who had been coaxed out of retirement to make the Pats appear like they had a running game. The offensive line was a mess and league officials had been targeting Rob Gronkowski whenever they could for offensive pass interference, while letting defenders mob the freakish tight end. Again, Brady isn’t supposed to win. Maybe he never was.

Still, there’s a chance. There’s 1 minute and 34 seconds left and the Pats have the ball on their side of the 50-yard line. Brady’s approaching 50 passes and he’s been hit 17 times by a ferocious Broncos front that had been using the crowd noise to consistently win at the line of scrimmage. His completion percentage is hovering around 50, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola are outmatched on the outside, and Gronk isn't going to get the calls.

Brady’s thrown 2 picks and 0 touchdowns and it’s unclear how he’s survived the beating he’s taken. It’s 4th down and 10 and the Broncos are one stop away from the Super Bowl. Instead, Brady hits Gronk down the seam with a pass over double coverage for 40 yards. Four plays later, with 12 seconds left, Brady again finds Gronkowski in double coverage, tip-toeing in the back of the end zone, bringing the Patriots within 2.

It’s not enough. The Broncos defense disrupts Brady’s timing just enough on the 2-point conversion attempt, forcing a tight throw that gets deflected and picked off, effectively clinching a Super Bowl trip for Manning’s Broncos.

As a diehard Pats fan, it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen. Brady had taken a personal beating in the press for an entire season, which culminated in him taking a physical beating on the road against a version of Peyton Manning most wanted to help ride off into the sunset. Brady, having already tied childhood idle Joe Montana with 4 Super Bowl rings, had cemented his place in NFL history. If he would’ve tapped out (emotionally or physically) of the 2015-2016 AFC title game, people would’ve quickly forgotten. It was always supposed to be Manning’s last hurrah. Regardless, Brady made Manning wait anxiously on the bench as he tried to orchestrate a game-tying drive.

Brady was suspended for the first four games of the following season, which he ultimately capped off with the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. He could have called it quits but he decided to come back for more, leading the charge to two more Super Bowl appearances and a sixth ring.

I have nothing in common with Tom Brady, but he has been an inspiration over the years. During some of my most challenging times, I’d ask myself what my favorite athlete would do in a similar situation. The answer, I decided, was that Brady would keep showing up, too stubborn to let somebody else--some other event--dictate the terms. And for that, I’ll always be grateful.