Why Tom Brady Is The Player of The Decade

Any fan of football should know that the most important position on the field is the quarterback. The quarterback orchestrates the offensive out-come for his team, and no other position has such a great effect on the game than the quarterback.

As you can tell, I believe the NFL player of the decade is a quarterback. But who? Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger? No.

This quarterback has won more Super Bowls than anyone this decade, (depending on if the Steelers win a Super Bowl this year), he is a two time Super Bowl MVP, he is a NFL MVP, he has broke numerous NFL records, and he had the greatest statistical season by a quarterback ever. This player is none other than Tom Brady.

Tom Brady was never slotted to be a high-prized player when he entered the 2000 NFL Draft. He wasn't very highly regarded as Peyton Manning was, he was a mere nobody. He was selected 199th overall in the 6th round by the New England Patriots.

The "Tom Terrific" era started early in the 2001 season for the New England Patriots. It was late in a week two, divisional contest against the New York Jets when Pro Bowler, Drew Bledsoe, was flushed out of the pocket and received a violent blow by Jets' linebacker Mo Lewis.

Bledsoe was down, and it was serious, and Tom Brady was thrown into the drivers' seat of the Patriots' offense.

Tom Brady led the Patriots to finish the season with 5 straight wins and leading the team to their third Super Bowl appearance. Brady shined in his first Super Bowl appearance, he was a true field manager. He went 16-27 and threw for 145 yards and one touchdown to David Patten. He was named Super Bowl MVP for his late game heroics in leading the Patriots down field, with under 2 minutes to go, for Adam Vinatieri to kick the game-winner.

From that moment on, all of the New England knew they had someone thing special with Tom Brady.

Over the next three years, Brady led the team to two more Super Bowl titles again Carolina and Philadelphia. In that time period ('02-'05), Brady never posted a Quarterback Rating lower than 85.7.

Tom Brady engineered a 21 regular season game winning-streak with the Patriots as he was still a younger player and still maturing.

The young quarterback never really had the best weapons, but he made the best use out of them as he could. Receivers like, David Patten, Deion Branch, David Givens, Bethel Johnson, Christian Fauria, and Daniel Graham all were effected by Brady's play. Those players never put up the same numbers after leaving New England.

For most of Brady's career he has had to play with sub-par receivers, or average at best ones. His best year in turning "nobody" receivers into something was 2006. His receiver core was below average. Reche Caldwell, Doug Gabriel, and Jabar Gaffney were his starting receivers, and all of them weren't very specular. But his talent effected them tremendously and they all had career years.

Brady threw for 3,529 yards with 24 touchdowns and only throwing 12 interceptions and his top receiver, Caldwell, snagged 61 passes for 640 yards and 4 scores.

Brady found himself leading this very challenged offensive team to a surprising AFC Championship birth against the Indianapolis Colts, although, they lost.

That off-season, Bill Belicheck realized Brady needed some top weapons, some receivers who were at a high caliber. Brady had never had players of the talent level like Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, or Dallas Clark like Peyton Manning has had his whole career, he's had average at best, and Brady's numbers are not that far behind Manning's.

Brady was equipped with Randy Moss, Donte' Stallworth, and Wes Welker for the 2007 campaign.

The 2007 season was a season to remember. Tom Brady led the Patriots to a first ever 16-0, un-defeated regular season while shattering many NFL offensive records, some set by Peyton Manning.

Brady's first year with all highly talented receivers, he posted the best numbers ever by a quarterback in NFL history. He threw for a record 50 touchdowns while gaining 4,806 yards and completing 68.9 of his passes with a 117.2 passer rating. Those numbers helped Brady claim his first ever NFL MVP award that season.

As everyone knows, the Patriots went 18-1 that season and lost in dramatic fashion against the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, so everyone was waiting for the 2008 season to start.

The '08 season didn't go too well for Brady; during the first game of the season, Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury. Brady tore his ACL and MCL and was un-able to play the rest of the year.

Now, after a years of rehabing from major knee surgery, Brady is back and playing very well. A lot of people don't understand how impressive it is to play like he is after a knee injury. It took Carson Palmer several years to return to his All-Pro statue after injuring his knee in the '05 playoffs against the Steelers.

Throughout Brady's short career, he has impressed millions. Brady has the best winning percentage by a quarterback ever since the Super Bowl era. He has a 101-27 record, a .789 winning percentage for regular season and playoff games. He is currently tied for second among quarterbacks all-time with 14 career playoff wins. Brady's playoff record is at 14-3, that's very impressive, compare that to Peyton Manning's at 7-8, I think that's quite the difference. Brady has the greatest touchdown to interception ratio ever by a quarterback, better than Manning, at 2.29.

Tom Brady is this decade's NFL top performer and he will be playing at a high level for years.