Today, the Patriots took most of the drama out of something that was still at least two years away from ruining our lives. Quarterback/icon Tom Brady signed a three-year $27 million contract extension that will keep him in New England through the 2017 NFL season. FYI, he'll be 40-years-old on August 3, 2017.
Brady earned a $3 million signing bonus with annual salaries of $7 million in 2015, $8 million in 2016 and $9 million in 2017. The whole point of this move was that it frees up $15 million of salary cap space for the Pats over the next two seasons. This is particularly important since they have a bunch of important guys that will be free agents two weeks from today: Wes Welker, Sebastian Vollmer and Aqib Talib being the headliners.
If it's possible to have a bigger mancrush on Brady, this unselfish act will surely win over the few haters in this region. How many other elite athletes, especially in the NFL (with no guaranteed contracts) would do this? I normally don't get too emotional about guys being on one team their whole career since it so rarely happens but in this case, it just feels right. Brady is still one of the best quarterbacks in the league and with only untested Ryan Mallett behind him, New England will rely on Brady heavily for as long as he'll play.
The unspoken question on everyone's mind in this area is when Brady and Bill Belichick will retire. At least now we can be much more confident that Brady isn't going anywhere for five more seasons. You might as well add Belichick to that equation since I find it impossible to think he'd ever leave the Patriots with Brady still active. They seem to be a package deal.
In one of the few down times in the NFL off-season, this is a wonderful reminder to Pats fans that with a couple tweaks (mostly to the defense), the team should be a Super Bowl contender for as long as TB12 is under center. Exhale.
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