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sports Thursday 3 February 2022
Old school dismissed: Brady, "Big Ben" and the end of an era

By WILL GRAVES the ultimate outlier, he pro-
AP Sports Writer vided a blueprint that Al-
Tom Brady always had an len, Jackson and others are
innate sense of timing. Ben using to carry the league
Roethlisberger too. Consid- into its second century.
er it a prerequisite — per- Steelers head coach Mike
haps the most important Tomlin became keenly
one — if you want to spend aware of this during the
a generation in the NFL. fall while his team strug-
They were two sides of the gled to contain the likes
same coin. Old school in of Mahomes, Burrow and
their own way. Herbert, who went a com-
Yes, really. bined 5-0 against Pittsburgh
Strip away the "TB12 Meth- this season, sometimes put-
od" branding, shield your ting up eye-popping num-
eyes from the bling of bers in the process. Asked
Brady's seven Super Bowl repeatedly during the year
rings and his supermodel about what he's looking for
wife and all the "GOAT" in finding Roethlisberger's
merch and you'll find per- successor, he repeatedly
haps the most successful talked about quarterback
grinder in league history. mobility.
A slow, unremarkable That doesn't mean Tomlin
sixth-round selection who is searching for Vick ver-
squeezed every last ounce sion 3.0. But the job require-
of talent — and then some ments for what Tomlin and
— out of a body that hardly his brethren are asking their
screamed "eventual all- quarterbacks to do in 2022
time leader in just about bears only a passing re-
everything" when the Pa- semblance to what Roeth-
triots took a flyer on the lisberger and Brady were
scrawny kid from Michigan tasked with in 2004.
with the 199th overall pick Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger breaks away from Green Bay Packers' Jamari Lattimore Winning never goes out
in the 2000 draft. (57) for a touchdown run during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013, of style. It's the way teams
Roethlisberger arrived with in Green Bay, Wis. are going about it that is
more fanfare four years Associated Press changing. Brady and Ro-
later when Dan Rooney ethlisberger's records will
insisted the Steelers grab week at the Senior Bowl in as Brady did and make a next decade-plus taking likely fall one day — ex-
the 6-foot-5 manchild from Mobile, Alabama, they're series of micro-decisions as turns appearing in the Su- panded schedules and
Ohio with the 11th choice. not kidding. For all of their chaos envelops them. They per Bowl, gracing the cov- quarterbacks playing at a
Yet while Brady did every- greatness and the gold need to do more than fend er of "Madden" — heck, high level into their late 30s
thing to distance his image jackets that await them in off defenders with one arm Jackson and Mahomes and beyond will see to that
from the prospect who ran Canton, Ohio, the game and fling game-altering have already done it — — but after 100-years plus
the 40-yard dash in 5.28 has moved on. passes with the other as Ro- and crowding the top 10 in of having a position domi-
seconds (that's not a typo), The proof has been broad- ethlisberger did. annual jersey sales. nated by a certain para-
Roethlisberger embraced cast into millions of homes Watch Allen lower his shoul- Their rise has helped fuel digm, the tide has shifted.
his "Big Ben" persona while over the last month during der to take on linebackers. another TV ratings surge for Perhaps for good.
— just like Brady — evolv- perhaps the most compel- See Jackson spin defend- a league that already has Maybe Brady, as astute
ing from game manager to ling playoffs in a century- ers into the ground. Or an ability to capture the a student of the game as
franchise icon. plus of professional football. Mahomes zig-zagging like public's attention in ways anyone, could see it com-
"Ben defied the TB12 Meth- The future Roethlisberger a kid running away from other sports simply cannot. ing. He accepted the
od in favor of the 'Throw and Brady fended off to classmates during a game Their arrival en masse mantle as the position's
Some Ice On It' method his the bitter end is finally here. of tag. serves as a paradigm shift. standard-bearer and took
whole career, and ended The baton they carried for Even Burrow, as close to As improbable as Brady's it to once unimaginable
up an all-time-great with capably for so long has a Brady clone as perhaps ascendance to GOAT-sta- heights.
6 Pro-Bowls and 2 Super been passed to (or taken there is, used a pair of tus seemed 20 years ago, He heads into the next
Bowls," Brady tweeted after by) players who grew up scrambles to key Cincin- he and Roethlisberger both phase of his life watch-
Roethlisberger retired on idolizing them. nati's stunning rally past fit the archetype of what ing the players who grew
Jan. 27. "There's more than Patrick Mahomes. Josh Al- Mahomes and the Chiefs an NFL quarterback should up idolizing him playing a
one way to bake a cake!" len. Joe Burrow. The list goes in the AFC championship look — and play — like. game — to paraphrase
Maybe, but the cake looks on. Lamar Jackson. Justin game last week. A month and a day be- something golfing great
a lot different now than it Herbert. Dak Prescott. May- "The AFC is the quarter- fore Brady was drafted, Bobby Jones once said of a
did when Brady and Ro- be Jalen Hurts one day. back conference," Ravens Dan Marino retired as the young Jack Nicklaus — with
ethlisberger began their Justin Fields too. coach John Harbaugh said NFL's career leader in yards which Brady is not familiar.
respective ascensions in While they are all being on Monday. "You've seen passing and passing touch- Brady and Roethlisberger
the early 2000s. The position asked to win like Brady that the last two weeks." downs, a crown he passed took one form of a posi-
Brady and Roethlisberger and Roethlisberger did for And likely for years to on to Brett Favre, then tion as far as it could go.
helped define is changing. so long it's the manner in come. Manning, then Brees, then The Old School has been
When the Steelers and the which they are asked to go Mahomes is 26. Allen, Bur- Brady. Back then, Michael dismissed. The New School
Buccaneers stress they're about it that is changing. row and Jackson are 25. Vick was the anomaly. is in session. Sit down. Strap
not trying to find the next Quarterbacks can no lon- Herbert is 23. And while Vick's singular tal- in. And enjoy the ride.
Roethlisberger or Brady this ger just stand in the pocket They will likely spend the ents may always make him The GOAT certainly will.q