Super Bowl 2012: Has Tom Brady Lost His Title of Big-Game Hunter?

From 2001 to 2006, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were 12-1 in the NFL playoffs. The 12 wins included three Super Bowl titles in 2001, 2003 and 2004.

He was being compared to the greatest quarterback of all time, Joe Montana. Brady had his coolness, his calmness, his big-game hunter title and was one Super Bowl win away from tying Montana with four titles overall.

In the 2006 AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts, the Patriots blew an early 21-3 lead and fell behind, 38-34, late in the fourth quarter. In his 14th career playoff game and with under a minute left to play, Brady, with Montana-like coolness, drove the Patriots down to the Colts' 45-yard line with 24 seconds left to play.

This was Brady's moment for another come-from-behind win, and everybody knew it. The Colts, the Patriots, the fans and the football world knew that the Patriots and Tom Brady were going to drive downfield and score the game-winning touchdown.

They had to; this was Tom Brady. This was Joe Montana reincarnated for a generation not fortunate enough to have witnessed the legendary signal-caller.

Then, Colts defensive back Marlin Jackson intercepted Brady's pass and ended the comeback.

Brady responded the following season by guiding the Patriots to a historical perfect regular season, and they were only one game away from being the second team in NFL history to finish undefeated.

A win in the upcoming Super Bowl would have broken the NFL record for most wins in a season, with 19. (Montana was 18-1 in the 1984 season that ended with a Super Bowl win over the Miami Dolphins.)

In his 17th career playoff game, Tom Brady led the Patriots downfield, and with 2:42 left to play, hit wide receiver Randy Moss to put New England up 14-10. In the end, however, it was Eli Manning and the New York Giants who were celebrating Super Bowl glory, following a come-from-behind, last-second touchdown drive.

After missing the entire 2008 season to a knee injury, Brady returned the Patriots to the playoffs in 2009 and again in 2010, only to get knocked out both times without winning a single playoff game.

This season, Brady and the Patriots entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and proceeded to take the last two years of playoff frustration out on Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, essentially ending the game by halftime.

Against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC title game, Brady, for the first time in his playoff career, did not throw a single touchdown pass. If not for an amazing defensive play by the Patriots to knock away a potential game-winning touchdown pass, followed by a missed 32-yard field goal in the final seconds of the game, the Ravens, who had all but outplayed New England, might have won the game.

Instead, Brady and the Patriots got a shot at redemption in Super Bowl 46, only to fall short to the New York Giants and Eli Manning once again.

Brady did his part and played solid; his only real mistake was an interception at the start of the fourth quarter. He led back-to-back touchdown drives to close the first half and start the third quarter. And if not for an injury-limited Rob Gronkowski and a Wes Welker dropped pass with four minutes left to play, Brady and the Patriots might have won their fourth Super Bowl title in 11 years.

With the loss, Brady now falls to 3-2 all time in Super Bowl games.

Ever since the 2006 AFC title game against the Colts in which he was intercepted to close the game, Brady and the Patriots are just 4-5 in the playoffs, including 0-2 in the Super Bowl.

For much of his career, Brady was the quarterback of the decade. He was Joe Montana reincarnated. He was the alpha of quarterbacks in the NFL. There was Tom Brady, then everybody else.

Others were fantasy-football studs, had bigger arms, were more athletic and put up video-game-type numbers, but none had what Brady had. When it came to big football games, Tom Brady was the man to be under center.

Brady may have fallen off a notch. To some, he may no longer be considered the big-game hunter he once was. For a time, Brady was unbeatable in the playoffs; now, he's very beatable, and for the NFL, the thought of playing against him in the playoffs doesn't seem so scary anymore.

The Patriots will rebuild and retool for next season, and for Tom Brady, the only way to regain his title as "The Man" will have to be by winning another Super Bowl title.