Mark Madden Hot Take: Brady-Belichick meeting has massive hype but won't prove anything

Sunday night marks the Super Bowl in October.

It will be disappointing, like many actual Super Bowls, but for different reasons.

Tampa Bay’s visit to New England has little chance to be a good game.

It’s billed as the showdown between the greatest quarterback ever and greatest coach ever.

But when Tom Brady returns to Foxborough for Tampa Bay’s game against his old team, New England, it won’t remotely determine who made who.

Tampa Bay is 2-1, defending Super Bowl champion and loaded. Bill Belichick’s New England team is 1-2, mediocre and starting a rookie with promise at quarterback.

But promise won’t pay off Sunday night. Mac Jones isn’t going to beat Brady head up. (Jones might look good, though. The Buccaneers have a secondary both depleted and average.)

Sunday’s game will be rotten.

But the sidebars are interesting.

How will the crowd at Gillette Stadium greet Brady? (My bet is rapture.) Will there be a pregame ceremony? (Doesn’t sound like it.) How about at least a tribute video? (How could there not be?) Interaction between Brady and Belichick will be overanalyzed to an absurd degree. (See below.)

But the game itself will stink.

The hype overshadowed last week’s Tampa Bay-Los Angeles Rams game — a legitimately good game. The Rams won, ending Tampa Bay’s hopes for a (gag) undefeated season. (Yes, that was actually talked about. But Brady knows that’s not important. Not after 2007.)

The Rams are a legit Super Bowl contender. The Patriots are a playoff longshot.

Sunday’s game has massive hype. But it won’t prove anything.

Brady was probably twice as responsible as Belichick for the Patriots’ success. Belichick is a brilliant coach but isn’t out there playing. Either might have won a Super Bowl without the other. But Brady proved a lot when he actually did, right away, with Tampa Bay last year.

That Super Bowl — which admittedly didn’t involve Belichick — proved a lot more than Sunday’s likely slaughter ever could.

There are bets to be made, as always. Tampa Bay is a seven-point favorite.

But the interesting wagers involve Brady and Belichick.

The line on Brady and Belichick shaking hands after the game is +200. So are embracing and the combination of handshake/embracing.

The two not touching at all is +220. Brady and Belichick high-fiving is an understandable longshot of +2000. (They should fix it.)

The Brady-Belichick buzz has buried the fact Tampa Bay tight end Rob Gronkowski also previously played for New England. Gronkowski is a hype master but second fiddle here.