Nothing but admiration

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – So maybe this whole girlfriend thing is Tom Brady's greatest accomplishment as the ultimate American male.

Forget the three Super Bowls. Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana won four. So that's been done before, but there is no way Bradshaw could pull off the social feats of the New England Patriots quarterback.

Last month, Brady split with his longtime girlfriend, Bridget Moynahan, the fetching Hollywood starlet. Now, according to the Boston Herald he is dating Gisele Bundchen, the even more fetching Brazilian supermodel.

So he figured out how to do the seemingly impossible – upgrade Bridget Moynahan.

Don't you wish your breakups could work so well? Don't you wish everything you do, even the mistakes, worked out like they do for Tom Brady?

Is anyone in America living a more charmed life than this guy?

For just about any other single 29-year-old guy, winning the company of Bundchen would be the highlight of his life. Heck, just seeing Bundchen in person would be a milestone to most.

For Brady, well, it probably doesn't trump trying to reach a fourth Super Bowl in six years, which he'll go for when his Patriots visit the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday for the AFC championship game.

Nor does it beat playing terribly (three interceptions) last week against San Diego, yet having the Chargers hand the game back to him so he could make another legend-inspiring, supermodel-impressing, game-winning touchdown pass.

"It wasn't perfect," he admitted.

If San Diego doesn't gag it away, Brady is sitting on back-to-back seasons that ended with disappointing performances. Instead, he remains the greatest winner in the game today – 12-1 in the playoffs.

We should hate this guy, of course. He's got the looks, the money, the fame, the women, the GQ wardrobe and that habit of constantly falling upward.

Thing is, no one hates Brady. No one even dislikes him (save a few hardline Colts fans). You can't. Tom Brady is somehow impossible to hate, somehow a pretty Hollywood jet-setter one minute and a down-to-earth, just-one-of-the-guys, man's man the next.

He somehow has turned being the guy everyone can't stand in high school into the coolest person we wish we knew. Pity the incumbent if he ever decides to run for political office.

"[It's] his humility," said running back Heath Evans. "I've never met a more humble superstar."

Evans came to the Patriots in 2005, a journeyman trying to hang on in the NFL. He knew Brady as the famous, cover boy megastar and expected a personality that matched.

"I walk through this door after being cut by Miami and [Brady] comes up, shakes my hand and says, Hey Heath, I am Tommy. It's good to have you here.'

"He introduces himself like I didn't know who he was."

That's Brady and that's why he is the ultimate leader.

"He is a cool, laid back guy," said linebacker Tully Banta-Cain. "He definitely has the big name. Everybody knows who he is. But he talks to everybody. He is not a 'me' guy. He's a stand-up guy."

This is a QB who has thrown 147 career touchdowns, but still races into the end zone after each one and celebrates with his receivers like it was his first. This is an icon that could easily slack off, yet is still, teammates say, the first one in the weight room each day.

That's why no matter how rough of a time he is having – such as his struggles against San Diego – his teammates are forever confident that if they can just get him one more chance, he will pull the game out in the end. He doesn't have 24 career game-winning drives by accident.

"Even when he is not having a good ballgame in his eyes, he has the ability to somehow, some way to forget all about it and go in and make the next play count," said cornerback Ellis Hobbs. "And even if that play doesn't [work], he continues to move on.

"It is very unexplainable. He's one of the guys."

Even if none of the other guys have hosted Saturday Night Live, been a guest of the President at the State of the Union address or have a serious chance of appearing with his new girlfriend on consecutive Sports Illustrated covers – he for the Super Bowl, she for the swimsuit issue.

Poor Peyton Manning, Brady's foil with the Colts. Now that is "one of the guys." He's quiet. He's married. He seems like he lives a simple life. He may even mow his own lawn. He even sometimes screws up at work and can't explain why.

He keeps making these commercials where he is the average suburban guy – Peyton goes to the grocery store ("cut that meat"), Peyton buys a cell phone, Peyton talks to the paper boy.

And yet, he isn't half as beloved because while Manning is trying to be an everyman, every man is trying to be Brady.

Not that Manning dislikes Brady. "We have a great relationship," Brady said. "We talked the other day."

On top of the world, Brady has no foes, has no fears and knows no bounds. What you are seeing right here, right now, is life at the pinnacle for a professional athlete, respected by all, on the verge of even more greatness and still finding time to enjoy the trappings of the good life.

You'd say it can't get any better – you can't upgrade Gisele Bundchen, can you? – but then again, this is Tom Brady.