If the NFL had its way, Tom Brady would not be making his 2015 debut for almost another month. Now, there is nothing Roger Goodell and his cronies can do about the fact that Brady defeated them in court and has seemingly taken it out on his first two opponents.
Well, almost nothing.
The one thing the league can do is pretend Brady doesn’t exist. Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com raised an interesting point on Wednesday morning after Ben Roethlisberger was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for Week 2. Simply put, he wonders if the NFL is intentionally ignoring the performances Brady put up in wins over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1 and Buffalo Bills last weekend.
To be clear, we know the Offensive Player of the Week award means virtually nothing. We also know Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota was a very deserving recipient after he threw four touchdowns in the first half of his first ever NFL start. But let’s compare Brady’s Week 2 numbers with Roethlisberger’s Week 2 numbers, shall we?
Brady: 38-of-59, 466 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INT, 105.6 passer rating
Roethlisberger: 21-of-27, 369 yards, 3 TDS, 0 INT, 155.8 passer rating
Who was the better offensive player last week? You could make a case for both. Brady had more yards and threw the ball a lot more, while Roethisberger was more efficient. However, Brady was on the road against a Bills defense that made Andrew Luck look downright silly in Week 1. He also lit Buffalo up after a week in which Rex Ryan and his players talked all kinds of trash and could not have been more confident. Big Ben was great at home against a San Francisco 49ers defense that hardly anyone thinks is all that good anymore.
Perhaps the people in charge of handing out the Offensive Player of the Week were simply more impressed with Roethlisberger’s play. But if you think the NFL wouldn’t intentionally ignore Brady, you must be forgetting about this embarrassing promotional tweet. The league is by no means above that level of pettiness.
