When opportunity knocked, Brady answered call

By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff, 2/3/2002

Graphic: Tom Brady's season

EW ORLEANS The Louisiana lawn here is a lot like this town, a facade, actually a faux fauna that probably favors the Rams tonight in their Super Bowl showdown with the Patriots.

The Rams are built for speed, with speed, and the green broadloom turf inside the Superdome figures to play right into the hands and legs of their devilishly fast receivers and the laser-accurate throwing arm of Kurt Warner. Little did New England quarterback Tom Brady figure, back when he penned his high school farewell, that the words below his picture would prove to be so prophetic, even if a slightly off botanical metaphor.

''If you want to play with the big boys,'' Brady scrawled below his likeness in the Junipero Serra High yearbook, ''you gotta learn to play in the tall grass.''

Barely known in the NFL when the season began, truly a September footnote even to serious Foxboroughologists, the 24-year-old Brady now leads the Patriots into Super Bowl XXXVI. The San Mateo, Calif., kid with the broad smile, the square cleft chin, and a natural well of enthusiasm the envy of Poland Springs gets to wing it with Warner in the shortest but most significant grass of all.

Not long ago he was just another of Michigan's many fine quarterbacks, so

much a part of the Ann Arbor woodwork that he was still around at pick No. 199 when it came time for the Patriots to pick in the sixth round of the 2000 draft. Skinny, thin-necked, wiry Tommy Brady, the youngest of Tom and Galynn's four kids, who didn't pick up a football until his freshman year in high school because his parents thought it might be too rough a game for their only son.

Now he's here, front and under center, with a chance by late tonight to be telling the world that, yeah, aw shucks, he'll go to Disney World, and that he couldn'tuh done it without Drew Bledsoe, loves the Bay State like it was the Bay Area, figures Charlie Weis oughta be callin' bigger plays in the Pentagon, will buy each of his offensive linemen a timeshare (say, Week 7 or 8, to avoid a possible perennial conflict with Week 4 or 5), and that Bill Belichick, well, is just so cool that there are times he looks at the lovable lug and sees a guy under those layers of coaching garb that was just born, just born to be a surfin' dude.

Not that Brady even hinted at any of that last week (apologies, offensive linemen) because, in true Brady fashion, the former altar boy remained nothing but humble and genuine and engaging in all his dealings with the media. He showed up here with a sore ankle, pulled like taffy by the Steelers in last Sunday's AFC Championship game, and by Wednesday night was pronounced fit and able to make his 17th straight start for the Patriots.

What, you expected different? Nossir. Same ol', same ol'. Brady is back, armor spit-shined. All that remains to be seen is how the next chapter of the fairy tale will read.

''You know, everybody talks about Brett this, Brett that,'' said ESPN analyst Joe Theismann, the former NFL quarterback, noting the many talents of Packers quarterback Brett Favre. ''Let me tell you, when Tom Brady wants to step back and cut it loose, I'll match his arm with anybody in this league - but the thing is, he's accurate. When he sets to fire, he can fire.''

There is no test in the developmental process quite like a Super Bowl. Truly a rookie, after only one three-pass relief appearance last season, Brady may look back years from now at this game as the final exam that convinced one and all, perhaps even himself, that he'd arrived in the league. A win would guarantee it.

The impact of a New England loss? Though devastating to everyone in Patriots Nation, it most likely would be viewed as just the final dance in what has been Brady's four-month, mesmerizing coming-out party. Rarely in recent memory has New England witnessed so enthralling a debut. The most memorable: Ted Williams. Bobby Orr. Larry Bird. Tony Conigliaro. Fred Lynn.

''Oh,'' said Theismann, ''he's going to be fun to watch grow into this league.''

If not for Bledsoe's sheared blood vessel in Week 2, of course, all most of the world would know of Brady today probably would be his status as the smiling, eager-to-learn kid on the sideline who went 20-5 in his two years of starts in Michigan. World of potential, that 6-foot-4-inch Brady kid, but just a good-natured backup bauble to hold a clipboard and wear headphones on game day.

Truth is, no one knew what they had in Brady, not even the Patriots, which in part makes the story all the more engaging, especially when compared to a similar story in St. Louis. Until St. Louis homeboy QB Trent Green ripped up a knee in the '99 exhibition season, all that the world knew of Kurt Warner was a quirky pedigree that included Division 1-AA's Northern Iowa, the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena League, and the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe.

Brady is a stretch? Then Warner was, and is, a tale scripted for instant rejection by the Grade ''B'' Movie Board of Cinematic Arts. What next, a multifilm series in wunderkind wizards?

''There are certain similarities,'' agreed Brady, noting the comparison to the 30-year-old Warner. ''But then other parts are not similar - the opportunity presented for him, he went in and did really well and took over. I think that is quite a bit different than what we have here. Drew was injured, and I came in, played 15 games, and I think there is still lot to be decided.''

Ever Brady. Diplomatic from the tip of the Red Sox cap he wore everywhere here, down to the tip of his sneakers.

''I think maybe if you look back in a couple of years,'' he added, clearly uncomfortable when projecting his future vis a vis Bledsoe, ''there probably will be more similarities, or less similarities, but at this point, that is our situation.''

All of it sheds some light on the mystery/inexact science of scouting. Warner was never drafted. Brady was the sixth quarterback taken in what was considered a weak class for signal-callers. Now they're here, side-by-side, matching wits in the world's biggest football game.

What, precisely, do they do at those NFL combines? Today we will watch two guys considered to be the CEOs of their craft, who, in the eyes of the combine, didn't qualify for the lunchroom, never mind the boardroom.

''With the combine and scouts, it's like they put all their emphasis into cetrtain people - you know, guys who are supposed to be The Guys - and a lot of guys get overlooked,'' said Rams tackle Kaulana Noa, the 104th pick in the 2000 draft. ''They don't measure the heart of somebody, or the will to work, and a lot of that gets unnoticed, because maybe they are not physically as tall or as strong. But a lot of guys still know how to play the game.''

The factors are opportunity and projection. Scouts and personnel directors first must factor the track record a player has posted in college, within the framework of the college he has played for, and estimate how the player will develop if given a chance to play.

''I think what it says is that it just makes this game great, the NFL, that those things can happen in the league,'' said Rams coach Mike Martz. ''It's no reflection that someone isn't doing their job or doesn't know what they are doing - it is just, well, that's life.''

Gil Brandt, former vice president for personnel of the Dallas Cowboys, figures the lesson in it all is that scouts have to be diligent about rating a quarterback prospect's intelligence and work ethic. ''When you listen to Brady, and he talks about how 80 percent of the plays are different from week to week - and the guy understands the offense - well, obviously he is smart,'' said Brandt. ''But there are a lot of smart guys who don't take time to work, and work ethic is a big, big factor. I think for most quarterbacks it comes down to accuracy, mental toughness, and intelligence. There are some guys, hey, they don't have the greatest ability but they get the job done. Guys like Billy Kilmer and that, they didn't have the greatest ability. Bobby Lane is another. My hat goes off to Brady, and my hat goes off to Belichick to stick with him.''

For 6-8 weeks, Belichick had little choice but to go with the former Montreal catching prospect (18th-round pick in 1995). Based on preseason performance, the coaching staff leapfrogged Brady ahead of ex-Miami quarterback Damon Huard on the depth chart. The latter, once Dan Marino's understudy, moved to third-wheel status, backing the $289,000-per-year Brady.

''Controversial,'' is what offensive coordinator Charlie Weis still labels the decision. ''We brought in Damon Huard to be backup - and by the way, Huard is the one quarterback in the world to beat Kurt Warner twice, as he [recently] let me know. We brought in Huard, who had a 5-1 record as a starter, did a good job with Marino down in Miami, and in training camp Damon wasn't a bust, he was pretty good.

''But we saw something in training camp that made us decide to make Tom No. 2. It's all the things you've seen when he plays - that same special type of thing. We wanted it that if the guy went in, he would have a clue what to do, know how to manage a team. And you have to have the players believe in a quarterback, believe they can win when he is in.''

It is that readiness factor that provided Brady with the initial burst of success, magic, charisma. Working with what Weis acknowledges was a trimmed game plan, a schematic that initially featured variety if not volume, Brady had the Patriots marching off the hop with short passes over the top, screens, the occasional long ball. What Brady didn't initiate with his arm, often hooking up with Troy Brown, Antowain Smith made happen with his legs. Arm firing. Wheels whirring.

''From the time I got here,'' said Brady, ''I've just been preparing myself for the opportunity to play. You go through times in college, even those first three years [at Michigan] that I wasn't palying, hey, I was ready to play even if the coach didn't put me in - so when he put me in my fourth year, I was ready to go. The same thing happened here. I prepared myself, hard as I could, mentallly and physically, just watching and learning from these others guys who have done it. And we've gone out this year and played pretty well.''

So well, in fact, that Brady will head to the Pro Bowl when his day is done here. Then there will be the weeks ahead, maybe months, that will determine his future in Foxborough. There is a chance that he will be dealt (what chance, really, if he wins today?) and that Bledsoe will be revived as the franchise QB next season. But it's far more likely that Brady remains in place, the story to play out in years to come, and a new home is found for the veteran warrior.

''He got stronger, and his work ethic has really allowed him to have the year he has had this year,'' said the diplomatic Bledsoe, remaining unflinching in his public support of Brady, who was a high school sophomore when Bledsoe first came to the Patriots. ''It is not an accident that he has come in and played very, very well. He has worked at it, and honestly earned everything he has done this year. As hard as it was to stand there and watch someone else on the field, it also was very gratifying to see one of the truly good guys be rewarded for hard work and dedication he has shown.''

A season is about to end, and now the future is our's to see. Who knows what for Bledsoe? The ball goes to Brady, the smiling, blue-eyed slinger who grew up on warm San Francisco nights, loving the Oakland Raiders, dreaming of one day playing in the biggest game of all.

''Let me look at him on film,'' said Theismann, another to reflect on how talent can sometimes be initially overlooked. ''Tell me what his teammates think of him, what his coaches think of him. Coaches can have a selfish reason for liking guys, or not liking guys. Take Joe Montana - [former Notre Dame coach] Dan Devine hated him. Now there's a classic example of a guy - a third-round pick, Joe Montana. Yeah, right. Came out of Notre Dame, didn't play, but they kept sticking him in games that they were losing like, 35-7, and he would end up winning it, 37-35, you know? There is someting a little special about a guy like that.''

In the whisper of the tall grass, it sounds vaguely familiar.