A Loss That Puts Things in Focus

By Sam Farmer

Feb. 4, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —

Tom Brady spent Thursday with his New England teammates. His heart was 3,000 miles away.

Margaret Brady, his grandmother and one of his biggest fans, died the night before, four nights before she had planned to watch him play for his third Super Bowl ring. She was 94 and living in a Bay Area nursing home but still kept in close touch with her family.

“She always watched the games,” Tom said. “She had Super Bowl parties for the last three years at her nursing home. She was really the talk of the nursing home in those days. She would sit right in front of the TV, and we would always get phone calls from her after the game.”

Brady was somber but composed when discussing his grandmother, who lived a mile from his boyhood home in Burlingame and was “really, really” close to her grandchildren, who frequently came over to swim. He spoke haltingly about how his father was coping.

“He didn’t want me to be too concerned with it,” the younger Brady said. “He just told me that they would take care of everything there and we would deal with it after the season was over.”

One of the hallmarks of Brady’s career is his ability to sharpen his focus in the playoffs. He has thrown 271 passes in postseason games with only three interceptions, giving him the lowest career interception percentage, 1.11, in NFL history. Behind him on the list are Bart Starr, 1.41; Phil Simms, 2.15; Donovan McNabb, 2.45; and Randall Cunningham, 2.47.

“He’s always prepared, he’s always on top of the game plan,” Patriot Coach Bill Belichick said of Brady. “He sees things well on the field.

“I don’t think the magnitude of the game or the crowd noise or the situation bothers him. He’s able to focus on what he has to do, and usually does a pretty good job of it.”

Brady is 8-0 in playoff games, the second-longest postseason winning streak behind Green Bay’s Starr, who won nine in a row. Already, Brady has won two Super Bowls, half as many as his boyhood hero, Joe Montana.

“What do you say about him?” Patriot linebacker Ted Johnson said. “He is amazing. He does it with such poise and such calmness, he almost makes it look effortless.”

That doesn’t happen by accident. Brady prepares as thoroughly as anyone in football.

“I promise you,” offensive coordinator Charlie Weis said, “while everyone else is enjoying Super Bowl week, the last two nights I’ve been sitting in his room between 10 and 11 o’clock going over the game plan, per his request. That says a lot about him where I get a phone call last night saying, ‘Can you come up to my room? I’ve got a couple of things I want to go over with you.’ He’s actually getting to the point where his preparation is so good that he’s getting to be a pain in the butt.”

Montana had a similar feel for the game, a similar passion for knowing everything he could know. But he believes the comparisons are overblown.

“I don’t see anything of myself” in Brady, Montana said. “I think people make comparisons because our paths were similar and we have somewhat of the same disposition. People compare us because we were overlooked in the draft and we have Super Bowl victories. Other than that, I don’t think there’s that much.”

That said, Montana agreed it’s time to include Brady in the mix when the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history are discussed. And, at 27, he will be the youngest quarterback to start three Super Bowls.

“I don’t think it’s really been a goal of mine or ours to win Super Bowls faster than anybody else,” said Brady, who twice has been chosen the Super Bowl’s most valuable player. “I think as they present themselves, and as they have this year as this game has presented itself, the goal is really just to continue playing.”

And this weekend, he’ll be playing with a heavy heart. He’ll be focused, of course, but his grandmother won’t be far from his thoughts.

“We’re so driven here,” he said. “We’re so focused ... and we get so wrapped up in this part of our life that the other things escape us. It does put a lot of things in perspective when people close to you pass. It’s part of the life we live.

“Hopefully, I’ll live to be 90 years old and live a life as full as she did.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX

Brady’s bunch

Tom Brady is undefeated in postseason play:

2001 SEASON

* New England 16, Oakland 13

32 for 52, 312 yards, INT

* New England 24, Pittsburgh 17

12 for 18, 115 yards

* New England 20, St. Louis 17 *

16 for 27, 145 yards, TD

2003 SEASON

* New England 17, Tennessee 14

21 for 41, 201 yards, TD

* New England 24, Indianapolis 14

22 for 37, 237 yards, TD, INT

* New England 32, Carolina 29 *

32 for 48, 354 yards, 3 TDs, INT

2004 SEASON

* New England 20, Indianapolis 3

18 for 27, 144 yards, TD

* New England 41, Pittsburgh 27

14 for 21, 207 yards, 2 TDs

* Super Bowl

Super Conductors

Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Tom Brady are the only players to be named Super Bowl most valuable player more than once. Starr was MVP in Super Bowls I and II, Bradshaw in XIII and XIV and Brady in XXXVI and XXXVIII. Montana is the only player with three (XVI, XIX, XXIV).

Bart Starr

Green Bay Packers

* Super Bowl I vs. Kansas City: Passed for 250 yards (16 for 23), 2 TDs, 1 INT.

* Super Bowl II vs. Oakland: Passed for 202 yards (13 for 24), 1 TD.

Terry Bradshaw

Pittsburgh Steelers

* Super Bowl XIII vs. Dallas: Passed for 318 yards (17 for 30) 4 TDs, 1 INT.

* Super Bowl XIV vs. L.A. Rams: Passed for 309 yards (14 for 21), 2 TDs, 3 INTs.

Joe Montana

San Francisco 49ers

* Super Bowl XVI vs. Cincinnati: Passed for 157 yards, 1 TD.

* Super Bowl XIX vs. Miami: Passed for 331 yards, 3 TDs.