Joe Santoro: Still hate Tom Brady? You need to stop

Stop hating Tom Brady.

If you catch yourself wishing ill will on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback this weekend in the NFC championship game, take a deep breath, close your eyes for a second or two and calm your nerves. You can then open your eyes and let history wash over you like a warm ocean wave.

Brady is doing something that we just haven’t seen in a team sport. He is 43 years old and arguably as great as he has ever been, playing the most physically and mentally challenging position in sports. So, yes, stop hating Tom Brady. You are now just making yourself look small, petty, childish and silly.

Yes, I understand. He is freakishly handsome. He has a super model wife. He could have 42 super model girlfriends if he wanted. He is crazy rich and has been remarkably fortunate in his career, simply surviving two decades as a starting quarterback in the NFL. He is easy to hate because, well, nobody should be that perfect.

But now he is two victories away from arguably the most amazing accomplishment in NFL history, winning a Super Bowl at the age of 43 (in his home stadium, no less) with the Bucs, a team that wouldn’t have won the SEC the last 10 years. Appreciate the greatness. You’ll never see this again.

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The pick here, though, is Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers over Brady and the Bucs in the NFC title game. Rodgers is six years younger than Brady. He will be playing at his home stadium where weather might be a factor. We might see Brady sitting on the bench wearing Bernie Sanders’ mittens. And Rodgers right now is the best quarterback in football.

I will never bet against Brady (take the three or four points the Bucs are getting) but Rodgers is crazy good right now.

My AFC pick is Buffalo. The Bills are crazy good right now. The Kansas City Chiefs are another Patrick Mahomes head injury away from total destruction. Bills quarterback Josh Allen looks like Jim Kelly.

The Chiefs haven’t played all that well since the fourth quarter of last year’s Super Bowl (sorry, 49ers fans). But take the two or three points and the Chiefs. Both these games are toss-ups and it’s a flip of the coin predicting who will win in nearly empty stadiums.

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Given all that, I do have a confession to make. I, too, am trying to get over my own quarterback hatred. As a lifelong (and continually depressed) Chicago Bears fan, I truly hate Aaron Rodgers, just like I once hated Brett Favre and Bart Starr. My Packer quarterback hatred has been a long and dreadful 50 years of suffering, punctuated only briefly by fleeting moments of relief provided by the likes of Jerry Tagge, Lynn Dickey and David Whitehurst. But it’s nothing personal. It’s just football.

But when I watch the Packers, it seems as if Rodgers is taunting me right through the television screen. Yes, I know. I need to close my eyes, take a deep breath, find some maturity and move on. But while Rodgers, like Brady, is handsome, rich and successful, he also flaunts his hot celebrity girlfriends in our face. Olivia Munn, Danica Patrick, Erin Andrews, that former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and Gossip Girl star. And that’s only the ones People Magazine knows about.

And he’s doing it in Green Bay, the frigid tundra that hot celebrity girls avoid almost as much as fat, old sportswriters with Packer quarterback issues. That’s why I’m picking Rodgers over Brady this week. I want to prove that I am finally maturing.

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If you are a San Francisco 49ers fan you might be better off avoiding the NFC and AFC championship games this weekend. Three of the four starting quarterbacks this weekend grew up in Northern California and likely idolized the 49ers. Brady grew up in San Mateo. Allen is from the Fresno area (Firebaugh) and Rodgers is from Chico. Mahomes has no Bay Area ties but his father Pat did pitch for Visalia in the California League in 1990, beating the Reno Silver Sox at Moana Stadium in August. The best 49ers’ quarterback right now is a 64-year-old Joe Montana. It’s too bad the NFL hasn’t had a territorial draft, giving NFL teams rights to players from their local area, like the first year of the American Football League in 1960.

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The 49ers aren’t the only ones who have had no idea what was right under their nose. The Fresno State Bulldogs have had a number of standout quarterbacks, namely Derek and David Carr, Kevin Sweeney, Trent Dilfer, Paul Pinegar and Billy Volek. But they somehow missed out on two phenomenal talents who grew up right in their own backyard and dreamed of playing for the Bulldogs. Allen was not offered a scholarship by Bulldogs’ coach Tim DeRuyter (a former Nevada Wolf Pack assistant) and had to go to a junior college (Reedley, near Fresno) his first college season (2014) before heading to Wyoming. And Pack fans know all about Fresno coach Pat Hill messing up and not offering Colin Kaepernick a scholarship from nearby Turlock. DeRuyter, by the way, was a Pack assistant in 2006 when Kaepernick signed with the Pack. He should have learned his lesson by the time Allen was available.

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Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers announced his retirement this week, ending one of the longest, most productive and overlooked careers in NFL quarterback history. Rivers, believe it or not, is a likely sure-fire Hall of Famer despite the fact that the national media, which obsesses over Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, has never really paid much attention to him.

Rivers is fifth in NFL history in passing yards, completions and touchdowns. He went 134-106 in his career and 12-12 in the playoffs. But he never got to the Super Bowl. His biggest mistake was playing his entire career in the shadow of Brady and Peyton Manning. Former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who was traded for Rivers in 2004, was obsessed over by the national media because he won two Super Bowls. But Rivers was always a better quarterback. Eli was just 117-117 in his career (also 12-12 in the postseason) and is behind Rivers in career yards (eighth), touchdowns (ninth) and completions (eighth).

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If Brady and the Bucs do indeed keep winning, Brady will be the oldest starting quarterback (43) to win the Super Bowl and Tampa coach Bruce Arians (68) will be the oldest Super Bowl winning head coach.

Brady, at 41 two years ago, is already the oldest QB to win a Super Bowl. Bill Belichick, two years ago, is the oldest coach at 66. A Chiefs-Bucs Super Bowl will give us two head coaches (the Chiefs’ Andy Reid is 62) over the age of 60 in the big game.

If that happens, turn off your cell phones, get off Twitter, wear your mask, stay six feet away from everyone and watch the Super Bowl old-school style on television, to honor all the old guys.