Super Bowl XLII: Is Tom Brady a Juice-Head?

Tom Brady's record-setting performance Saturday night in Foxboro (26-28, 262 yards) helped propel the New England Patriots to a hard-fought victory over the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars 31-20.

My respect and admiration for Brady as a player and as a man is unparalleled. Brady, who broke Phil Simms record for accuracy in a single-game by completing 92 percent of his passes, is a consummate professional and one of the classiest individuals in all of sports.

Nevertheless, in this time frame of congressional hearings and witch hunts and in the honor of journalistic credibility, I find pertinence in noting that New England's "Golden Boy" was linked, albeit thinly, to the BALCO investigation.

According to phone records seized by the federal government, Brady twice contacted Barry Bonds' nefarious trainer Greg Anderson in 2002 to inquire about his "services." The meeting between "Giselle's Girl" and the Bay Area's most notorious pusher of synthetic testosterone allegedly never materialized.

Still, if you look at the matter objectively, the whole situation reeks of potential scandal.

Brady may not have actually met with Anderson, but the question remains: Why seek out Anderson in the first place? I am entirely cognizant that I am jaded and steep in cynicism, but I refuse to believe that Brady, who has gained 35 lbs. since his rookie season in 2000, innocently and naively stumbled upon Anderson without knowing his rogue background.

Are we to believe that Brady conveniently called Anderson, of all people, to devise a plan to better strengthen his calves?

Naysayers and critics will grill me for this entry and claim that I am a yellow journalist who is muckraking in an attempt to write a lurid story. That is simply not the case. I am making mention of a fact that many people, particularly New Englanders, like to curiously dismiss as baseless.

Unfortunately, despite being built like the cartoon character "Shaggy," I believe that Brady, like Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent, could be yet another piece of the infamous "Steroid Era."