Mark Madden: Never again doubt Tom Brady, the greatest football player ever

LAS VEGAS — What a rotten Super Bowl.

The (slight) favorite fell apart. It was a rout. The old legend exposed the new legend — though Patrick Mahomes was mostly exposed by his thrift-store offensive line. I lost a lot of bets. But Pat McAfee lost $30K on the coin flip. Tails can fail, it turns out. Mumble rapper Le’Veon Bell formed a new group: Run DNP.

But the big story was Tom Brady. Duh.

This was a swing game for Brady. Win or lose, he would always have supporters for best quarterback of all time. But losing would have put him 6-4 in Super Bowls. Mahomes would have ripped the torch from his grasp. His critics would have gotten ammo.

But now Brady is 7-3. Brady just beat Mahomes, who won’t win that many rings — and maybe not even two, looking at how rattled and thoroughly defeated Kansas City was. Re: GOAT conversations, Brady will always have a Super Bowl win over Mahomes, and he did it at 43.

Brady has won four Super Bowls since Spygate, doing mega-damage control.

And don’t forget the basics: At 43 and in his first season with Tampa Bay, Brady took a 7-9 team and made it Super Bowl champs, tacking on MVP to boot.

Brady now has seven rings. That’s one more than any franchise, including your Steelers.

I didn’t think Brady could do it and said so in this space. I’ll never doubt Brady again.

Brady can’t be considered anything but the greatest QB ever. He’s also the greatest football player ever.

But now Brady occupies even more rarefied air. I hate debating Mt. Rushmores, but the Mt. Rushmore of U.S. sports is Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Brady. Last night’s win ingrains him that deeply into the American lexicon. (Tiger Woods blew it via scandals and not catching Jack Nicklaus. Ric Flair also must be considered.)

Antonio Brown will get a ring. So will the ballboy. Brown didn’t win a Super Bowl. He happened to be on a team that won a Super Bowl.

Brown had five receptions for 22 yards, not even good enough to extend that phony record from his Steelers days. He caught a touchdown. That’s OK. I bet on him catching a touchdown.

This was not redemption for Brown. Too many stories before the Super Bowl shamefully played that angle, buying into Brown’s portrayal of himself as victim.

Brown’s wrongdoings are numerous and haven’t gone away. All of his problems are self-inflicted. He’s a bad person. One chintzy touchdown and a stolen ring don’t change that.

Bruce Arians has done well in “retirement.”

You may recall that when the Steelers ditched Arians as offensive coordinator in 2011, the organization lied in the most mealy-mouthed fashion and said he “retired.” All Arians has done since “retiring” is win NFL Coach of the Year twice and now a Super Bowl. Arians had more playoff victories this season than Mike Tomlin since Arians left.

“Yeah, but Arians needed Brady to do that.” Yeah, no kidding.

But over the best part of this past decade, Tomlin had a Hall-of-Fame quarterback in his prime and generational talents at receiver and running back. The best he could do is a single appearance in the AFC championship game, which the Steelers lost by 19.

Arians > Tomlin, and it’s not even close.

Both teams in the Super Bowl > the Steelers, and it’s not even close. The Steelers were easily the worst team in the playoffs. They play checkers. Other teams play chess.

Consider the vaunted Steelers defense, which has allowed 93 points in its last two playoff games.

Look at Tampa’s defense, which didn’t allow Mahomes to score a touchdown.

Certain elements are comparable, like the pass rush. But look at the middle of the defense. Devin Bush is Devin White Lite. The Steelers got the lesser of the Devins in the 2019 draft. The Steelers complement Bush with Vince Williams, a one-dimensional run-stopper. The Buccaneers complement White with Lavonte David: nearly as good as White, nearly as quick.

The Bucs’ defense can run with anybody. The Steelers’ can’t, and that was doubly true when Bush got hurt and they operated with plugs like Robert Spillane and Avery Williamson.

The Steelers were never near as good as their 11-0 start and will struggle to reach .500 next season.

But what’s crucial is: T. J. Watt must get NFL Defensive Player of the Year. That wrong must be fixed. Reassemble the Warren Commission. Get to the bottom of this crime against football. If Aaron Donald was any good, his last name would be Watt. Ask T.J. Ask J.J. Ask, uh … the other one.