The Lion in Winter

That Jimmy Garoppolo trade didn't look like such a big deal Saturday night.

Tom Brady was Tom Freakin' Brady. Perfect Tommy. The Icy Commander. Tom Terrific. Thor. He was Fuck You Tom Brady (your mouth says "no" but your eyes are definitely saying "fuck you"). Brady, Brady, Bo Brady… Brady!

From this point forward, most of the records Brady breaks will be his own. If he can repeat his divisional performance - 300+ yards, 3+ TD passes - in the AFC Championship game, he'll break his own records for such games. In fact, every pass completed, every yard gained, every TD pass will break his own playoff records for completions, yards, and TD passes.

Brady's greatness has become so routine that when he puts up average numbers as he did to close out the regular season, it's headline news. Was it injury-related? The absence of Brady favorites Chris Hogan and James White? The "Do Not Open Till The Playoffs" tag on Danny Amendola? Workplace conflicts with senior management? Maybe a little bit of all those things?

Whatever the reason(s) for his struggles over the last 5 games of the regular season (the Patriots did go 4-1-0 in those games), Brady Prime was back to doing GOAT things Saturday night. His 35/53/337/3/0 slash line really doesn't do his performance justice. Just a few of my favorite things…

• The scramble to his right, throw back to his left pass to Danny Amendola. 
• It wasn't completed, but the looping parabola James White couldn't track down was an absolute dime.
• The QB sneak for a 1st down. A quirky skill of Brady's that doesn't get a lot of pub because of everything else on his GOAT resume. Brady is as close to a sure thing on 3rd or 4th and 1 as you can get with a 91% conversion rate.
• Every time he threw the ball to Rob Gronkowski. The fade for the TD seemed a slow motion I can't look away from the car crash inevitability. Play single coverage on Gronk in the red zone at your own risk. 

If his health was an issue previously, it didn't seem to slow him down against the Titans and it shouldn't be a concern for the AFC Championship game as Brady was not sacked on the night. Hogan and White are back (and Dion Lewis remains a dynamic offensive weapon running and catching the football). I know there's no such thing as clutch but I believe Danny Amendola is; so does Brady and that belief is all that really matters. Workplace issues? Nothing a little management retreat can't fix.

Inconceivable. Tom Brady is the Dread Pirate Roberts of NFL quarterbacks. If you heard the original Brady was cloned in 2009 and that replicant Brady has been responsible for his late 30-something resurgence (not to mention his desire to play until he's 45), you might laugh at first but… you'd consider it, wouldn't you? It's simply difficult to wrap your mind around how great Brady has been - and still is. It's almost easy to understand why everyone west of the Connecticut River wants to believe TB12 is cheating at a level that circumvents the laws of physics and fluid dynamics. Maybe the NFL can outlaw the QB sneak or fade routes by Rob Gronkowski. It's probably too late to institute a mandatory retirement age as current players would be grandfathered in.

Maybe the NFL could classify avocado ice cream as a PED.

Brady no longer has any rivals. Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, John Elway were great; Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger will be enshrined in Canton. They're all playing for 2nd place on those Top 10 lists of all-time great NFL quarterbacks.

Tom Brady is only playing against Tom Brady.

I wouldn't bet against him.