Tom Brady Signs 3 Year Extension With the Pats And Once Again Takes A Gigantic Hometown Discount To Ensure We Are Superbowl Favorites For the Rest of His Time Here

CNNSI – Tom Brady took a huge step today to ensure he’ll retire a Patriot, agreeing to a three-year contract extension that will keep him under center for New England through the 2017 season, when he will be 40 years old. For the second time in his illustrious career, Brady is doing something players in this day and age simply do not do: As he did in 2005, Brady, a league source told SI.com, is signing a contract with New England that will pay him significantly less money than the market will bear, in large part to help the Patriots stay competitive for the next five seasons. Amazingly, according to the source, the deal is for an eye-poppingly conservative $27 million, which is less than half his worth by any measure.

In 2005, after his third Super Bowl title, Brady agreed to a six-year, $60 million deal, which at the time was dwarfed by Peyton Manning’s contract, which averaged $14.2 million a year. This year, clearly, he is doing exactly the same thing — in fact, giving the team even more of a hometown discount — with one goal in mind: to keep the Patriots competitive for the rest of his career. He’s putting his money where his mouth is. One teammate once said about Brady he would be such a sore loser he’d do whatever it took to never lose. At a time when the growing market for quarterbacks pegs the average per year at about $20 million — Drew Brees and Peyton Manning are there, and it’s likely Super Bowl champ Joe Flacco will be there soon — Brady’s average over the next six years will be consistently about 30 percent lower. It’s very likely Brady feels the same way today as he felt in 2005, when he did the last sub-market deal. “To be the highest-paid, or anything like that, is not going to make me feel any better,” he said in 2005. “That’s not what makes me happy. In this game, the more one player gets, the more he takes away from what others can get. Is it going to make me feel any better to make an extra million, which, after taxes, is about $500,000? That million might be more important to the team.”

And this is why win, lose, or draw I wouldn’t trade Tom Brady for anybody in the history of the NFL. Give me a guy who wants to win as much as I do. Give me a guy who will put his money where his mouth is time and time again. In an era where athletes consistently bail on their hometown team for an extra penny Tom Brady has done the opposite. Peyton Manning wouldn’t do it. Drew Brees wouldn’t do it. Only Tom Brady does it. This is why the Patriots have been the most consistent team for the past decade. This is why every year it’s Superbowl or bust. Because when your best player wants to win more than everybody else and proves it day and and day out with his actions on and off the field it bleeds through the franchise. There will never be another Tom Brady.  There will never be a run like the Patriots have had.  Never.  The Patriot way is the only way and it starts with #12.