Colts fans should hate Tom Brady, but after “The Shop” I like him even more

Tom Brady should be an easy guy for fans of his opponents to hate, but I can’t.

For almost a decade Brady’s Patriots and Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts/Denver Broncos dueled for superiority in the AFC.  Manning enjoyed a slight edge in the regular season, while Brady crushed it in the playoffs – and continues to at the ripe old age of (almost) 44.

I like the Colts, and have a real affinity for Manning.  Brady kept my guy from winning several more Super Bowls and being considered the best quarterback in NFL history.  That’s usually enough for a serious fan hatred to fester in me, but I can’t help overlooking several of Brady’s egregious flaws to land in a place I never expected to be – among Brady’s admirers.

Here is a short trip around six reasons to hate Brady:

• Seven NFL championships.
• Still rocking at an age many quarterbacks are spending early afternoons at a bar telling stories.
• Married to model Giselle Bundchen – who is actually wealthier than he is!
• Good-looking, even to men very confident in their masculinity.
• Used to own a home surrounded by a moat.
• He went to Michigan.

That’s a pretty good list spiced with the kind of appalling successes, overachievement, and genetic gifts that have driven generations of men wild with jealous rage.  But there are mitigating circumstances and events that earn my begrudging respect and applause.

The latest came during the current episode of HBO’s The Shop, when Brady explained his grievance with those teams that decided not to pursue him as a free agent, “One of the teams, they weren’t interested at the very end. I was thinking, ‘you’re sticking with that (12-letter expletive starting with m)?’”

That’s how people talk when they don’t care what people think about them, and that level of edgy indifference to a thin-skinned public arouses my appreciation.

By the way, we know he wasn’t talking about the Colts, because they had recently signed Philip Rivers, so they weren’t sticking with any “m************.”

There is also a video of a speech Brady gave at his alma mater that makes me want to drive to Ann Arbor and put on pads and a helmet.  Here it is:

Last but not least, Brady decided to settle the argument for all time as to whether Brady achieved because of Patriots coach Bill Belichick or Belichick achieved because of Brady by leaving New England for Tampa and promptly winning his seventh championship while the Patriots slid to an irrelevant 7-9 record.

Brady is perfect enough to be on a poster in a kid’s room, but imperfect enough to drink beer with.  That’s a tough line to walk, and it’s hard to think of another athlete who has done it this well.