Tom Brady’s secret weapon

PHOENIX - “I didn’t even think about it,” Tom Brady said as he walked toward an elevator after his Super Bowl news conference on Monday morning. He held in both hands a shiny trunk that stored his silver, football-shaped MVP trophy. He was surrounded by security, yet comfortable, at peace. He looked tired. He looked relieved. He looked patient.

And that was the question: just how much patience it took in this Super Bowl 49 victory over the Seattle Seahawks for him to be content with a night of dinks and dunks and darts. The New England Patriots correctly discerned they could not block the Seahawks for long; that quick, timing passes were the formula. Brady kept picking, plucking. None of his Super Bowl record-setting 37 completions was for more than 23 yards.

This requires extreme patience for any quarterback. Their instincts are often to chuck it long. It demanded an extra dose of patience for Brady, whose long completions in each of his last six seasons were for yardage gains of 69, 81, 83, 99, 79 and 81. Each of those was for touchdowns, too.

So, I’m not buying that Brady “didn’t even think about it” when considering a Patriots Super Bowl offensive design that took a dump-truck approach rather than a race-car one. Somewhere in the game plan creation, installation, practices and through four quarters of championship play, Brady had to keep pinching himself, reminding himself of the art of patience. To staying the course and sticking with the plan.

Consider that Brady averaged 6.6 yards gained per pass attempt in the Super Bowl. And that Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson averaged 11.8.

Brady’s patience won. Seattle’s lack of it, especially in the end, lost.

SB Nation presents: Final thoughts on Tom Brady’s fourth Super Bowl win

Now Brady is a four-time Super Bowl winner and three-time Super Bowl MVP and resides in rarified football air. But there is a DeflateGate investigation ongoing. Was Brady involved in the AFC Championship deflated football controversy?

Brady must patiently wait for that answer to be revealed in the investigation’s results. Some people think he already knows. That his fingerprints are all over it.

Brady found a way to navigate through this ruckus, patiently, while preparing for and then rising in the Super Bowl. This is an odd NFL moment. A player just received two of the richest honors the game offers -- a Super Bowl championship and the game’s MVP. Yet, the threat looms that soon he could be punished and his team fined for cheating.

This is like hopping on a roller-coaster ride at the end and riding backward.

This trashes that popular notion of “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Heck no, Tom Brady just won it all. This, for now, is all about the destination. Mission accomplished. He will live fully in this moment. For now, it is the safest place.

With patience, he will deal with any potential later fallout, with another trophy by his side and with another ring on his finger.

Ahead by 10 points in the fourth quarter, the Seattle offense kept giving the ball back to Brady, unable to convert third downs and maintain possession and keep him off the field. It is always a dangerous track for a team when Brady has the ball in the fourth quarter with something to prove.

Brady reminded everyone of that once again. So did Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. He said he has never coached a fiercer competitor than Brady.

“It’s a game of emotion,” said Brady, referring to cornerback Malcolm Butler’s game-clinching interception. “It happened so quickly. It was, obviously, as emotional a game can be at that point.”

It’s a game of patience.

There is no hurry-up-and-wait now in Tom Brady. He will just patiently wait. He will savor the arrival at this latest destination. Then dink, dunk and dart his way through.