Tom Brady Signs Four-Year Contract Extension: We Can Stop Talking About It Now

During halftime of NBC's opening game coverage of the Minnesota Vikings vs. the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints, Sports Illustrated writer Peter King broke reports that Robert Kraft approached him with news that an agreement had been reached on a contract extension for the franchise quarterback.

The deal, reportedly a four-year extension worth $72 million with $48.5 million guaranteed, makes Brady the highest-paid quarterback in league history.

The team is expected to announce the extension and to process it through the league on Friday.

There will be no more rumors, no testing of free agency for Brady in 2011. There will be no LeBron James-style "The Decision" special on ESPN.

Instead, just Brady leading the Patriots for at least five more years, as he has for the past decade.

This caps off what's been a roller coaster week for the 2007 league MVP, after rumors swirled that the extension—then reported to be three years for $58 million—followed by this morning's over-publicized car accident.

All the while, Brady has marched to the beat of his own drum, refusing to listen to the reports or to bite when asked questions by the media about his feelings or potential distractions.

That was the beat of the Patriots organization all through their Super Bowl-winning seasons. It was the beat of the drum to which the '07 Patriots marched into the Super Bowl undefeated, even after the tremendous distraction of SpyGate threatened to derail their perfect season from Week 2.

Whether a player can march to the beat of this drum will often determine whether the Patriots feed them or weed them out. Just ask Adalius Thomas.

With that (oh, and the three Super Bowl rings, the undefeated season, all the records, and the list goes on), there was never a chance that this deal wouldn't get done.

Regardless, no one ever thought this would be a distraction for Captain Clutch, Tom Terrific, California Cool, whatever you want to call him. He had denounced all theories of that by saying that he, "didn't have time to think about his contract for five minutes" on Wednesday.

But now that it's been announced, the Patriots and Tom Brady have erased all doubt.

Some information for this report was gained from NFL.com.