Super Bowl 2017: Deion Jones and Tom Brady, the 2 players who could make all the difference for their teams

HOUSTON – New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Atlanta Falcons middle linebacker Deion Jones are the players to watch in Super Bowl LI. Here is why:

“It’s an emotional game.”

Brady after winning the Super Bowl 49 MVP.

Brady deserves credit for a 17-season NFL career where he has mastered keeping his emotions curbed. Sure, he has smashed his helmet on the sidelines and barked at teammates and brooded on the bench. But consider that a staple of this player is he has always let his on-field talent overrule sentiment while routinely deflecting credit and applauding his opponent.

His last Super Bowl after the 2014 season was a case study in patience. An NFL investigation swirled over whether he had deflated footballs to get there. The game was reduced to a shocking, late, marvelous Patriots defensive play. And Brady did his part in it, dinking, dunking, darting, picking, and plucking against the Seattle defense, never completing a pass longer than 23 yards while winning his fourth Super Bowl and third MVP award.

The entire 2015 season was required before the league released its hammer: Brady would be suspended for the first four games of 2016. He fought it hard initially. His patience took control. He succumbed. He swallowed banishment for those first four games. Then he returned, went 13-1 and propelled into this Super Bowl.

Commissioner Roger Goodell’s and the NFL’s power won the war. The battle is all that is left for Brady following that episode. Vengeance for Brady is too simplistic a description. There is no equal vengeance for games lost and reputation tarnished.

What will drive Tom Brady in Super Bowl LI is what has driven him for 17 seasons: clenching his own standard. Quenching his own incessant thirst for greatness. Becoming the only quarterback with five Super Bowl championships. Sharing such a pinnacle with his teammates and franchise and family. Winning.

Anything else -– including Goodell being forced to hand him any trophies afterward — is gravy.

He is the Patriots player to watch in Super Bowl LI.

I expect Tom Brady to display a quarterbacking extravaganza.

In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, Deion Jones was 10. He and his family were forced to scramble. They spent time in Magnolia, Miss., and in Dallas. They spent time in Houston.

‘’I think about the road we traveled before we were finally able to go back home to New Orleans, and just the fact that it included Houston is an amazing thing,” Jones said.

He came here 10 years old, homeless and terrified.

He is back here, now age 22, secure and in Super Bowl LI.

“I look back,” Jones said. “But I spend more time looking forward.”

He is the Falcons middle linebacker. He was a second-round draft pick from LSU, the 52nd player selected last April. He only started one season at LSU. He didn’t even play in the middle at linebacker at LSU. But here he is as a Falcons rock, calling the defensive plays, manhandling in the middle.

“With him in the middle,” said Falcons cornerback Jalen Collins, “he has to talk a lot. He’s grown into one of those guys who’s definitely vocal on the defense and is flying around making plays.”

Falcons head coach Dan Quinn added: “We knew the hit factor was there. There was definitely a shift in his game. I’d say about five or six weeks ago, where not only did he have his assignments down, but he could get the communication out to other players. That’s when we saw a shift take place. We’ve been really pleased with his development so far.”

Al Smith, who played middle linebacker for the Houston Oilers from 1987 through 1996, remembers entering the NFL when African-American middle linebackers were a rarity.

“They looked at it like they used to look at black quarterbacks, that it was a `thinking man’s position and we weren’t suited for it,” Smith said. “I had to lean on the black pioneers at the position, guys like Willie Lanier and Mike Singletary. It’s a new day and a new game now at the position.”

So much so that a 6’1, 222-pound rookie African-American middle linebacker will control the Atlanta Falcons defense in this Super Bowl.

He is strong. He is fast. He is alert. He has a keen nose for the ball.

Keep an eye on Deion Jones in Super Bowl LI. Expect him to get his hands on the football. Expect him to force the action.

He will figure squarely in the middle of this championship game’s outcome.