Tom Brady Opened Up His Whole World to Us by Showing the Playcall Sheet From Super Bowl LI on National TV

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In December of 2024, Sotheby's held an auction called "The GOAT Collection," of some of Tom Brady's personal items. This little gem, called "The Comeback," was the wristband he during Super Bowl LI. Otherwise known as "The 28-3 Game." Or the game that inspired a vanity project movie in which four post-menopausal Hollywood legends travel across the country hoping for an orgy. 

Giphy Images.

This wristband has long since fascinated Patriots fans. It's been a tiny clue that could unlock all the mysteries of Brady and the Patriots dominance for two decades. And now that Josh McDaniels is back teaching his system to Drake Maye, the mystery of dominance yet to be achieved. In fact, I still have this article from early 2016 bookmarked. It's about the wristband on display on the plastic arm of a Brady mannequin at the Patriots Hall of Fame:

Speaking personally, seeing this for the first time 10 years ago felt like being that teenager from Bedouin shepherds of the Ta‘amireh tribe, who in the 1940s was searching for a stray goat, threw a rock into a cave, heard the sound of pottery smashing, and discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

The Scrolls were incomplete. In tatters. The fragmented pieces had to be painstakingly put together. And translated by scholars. They are still debated. But what's not in dispute is that they unlocked much knowledge. 

The same is true of the wristband. It's meanings are not all clear. Experts have learned what they can. But they offer insight into the Perkins-Erhardt System that has taken the Patriots to all 12 of their Super Bowls since 1985.

But then came yesterday. Week 1 of the NFL season in the Year of Our Lord 2026. When Tom Brady gave us so much more to go on:

To which I grabbed this screencap:

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Ran it through Grok AI, and asked the bot to make it legible. Behold:

Granted, a lot of this is clearly gibberish. I've seen others that seem at first blush to be closer to genuine football jargon, but the multi-colored bars don't sync up, so they can't be trusted either. 

This is going to take all the power of all the wise ones we have. Those who are no only understand this ancient tongue, but are steeped in the lore passed down by the elders, from McDaniels to Bill O'Brien to Charlie Weis, all the way back to Ron Erhardt and Ray Perkins in the long, long ago. 

If you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know where I'll be. In my study going over all of this, in order to become the Patriots blogger my forefathers wished me to be. Once again - not for the first time, and by no means for the last time - I find myself saying "Thank You, Tom Brady, for making this happen."