Super Bowl 2012: Tom Brady Losing Faith of Boston Sports Fanatics

The sports fans in Boston are a hardcore bunch, and their faith in the three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady is waning.

Not only is he 6-6 in his last 12 playoff games, but he missed throws in critical situations of the Super Bowl that he used to make. The pass to Wes Welker that was just out of his reach is a throw Brady usually makes. The tosses in the end zone for a safety and the underthrown interception are two he does not usually make.

There is no way you can blame Brady for the loss, but he certainly left a lot of plays on the field. This isn’t sitting well with fans that are beginning to see the writing on the wall that the 34-year-old Brady might not be capable of winning another Super Bowl for their team. The evidence is beginning to mount.

But right now, the main reason fans are losing faith is the antics of his Brazilian supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen. She essentially threw the entire receiving unit under the bus after the game:

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You (have) to catch the ball when you're supposed to catch the ball. My husband cannot (expletive) throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times.

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Those are harsh words, and it’s not sitting well with the Boston faithful.

Nobody knows the pulse of die-hard sports fans in the Northeast quite like ESPN’s “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons, and he thinks the attachment toward Brady and his internationally famous wife is declining tremendously:

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It's hard to overstate how provincial Massachusetts is. There's an "Us Against Them" mentality that's just part of the DNA. You grow up there, you live a full life there, you die there. That's how it's supposed to play out. There's been a local undercurrent for the past few years that Brady thinks he's too good for Boston (because he moved to New York, then California), that he cares too much about being a celebrity, that Gisele made him soft, that he's not really "one of us." So when you combine Gisele's Super Bowl week performance with everything else, take a guess what they'll be talking about on local sports radio this month.

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It’s ludicrous to think Boston fans are sick of Brady, quite honestly. He has made the Pats the team of the decade and has never made the franchise or city look bad. He is one of the great ambassadors of the sport. Why is it such a big deal that a California native prefers to live in his home state with warm weather over snowy Boston from February to June?

The celebrity aspect has some merit. The Uggs commercials and pretty-boy hair style doesn’t bode well with the blue-collar Beantown attitude, but there has never been one instance where he hasn’t been 100 percent supportive of the city.

As for his wife? What do you want Brady to do, put a muzzle on her? She was in the heat of the moment, big deal.

So this is my plea to all of the loyal fans in the Northeast: Relax! Brady has been spoiling you for more than a decade now, and just because he isn’t a gritty, buzz cut-wearing local doesn’t mean he hasn’t brought you endless amounts of sports happiness.

So let the anger from losing a Super Bowl subside and remember that one of the all-time greats will be doing everything in his power to redeem himself next year.