GLENDALE, Ariz. – The woman in the revealing pink camisole gave a final tug to her low-rider jeans, wiggled her way through the media pack and planted herself right in front of Tom Brady.
One look into his twinkling blue eyes and she was lost. Flustered, she asked what it would take to beat the New York Jets in the Super Bowl.
Brady broke into a big grin.
“Jets, Giants. New York, they’re all the same,” he said, glossing over the gaffe.
No one was more appreciative than that TV reporter from Mexico.
“He’s like Mr. Perfect,” she said.
Well, let’s see: Dimpled, dreamy looks that someday could land him in Hollywood or the halls of Congress, a former Victoria’s Secret strutter for a girlfriend and an NFL star so bright he might outshine the Super Bowl all by himself.
“I wouldn’t change places with too many people,” Brady said.
Certainly not on Sunday. Only 30, he will try to lead his unbeaten New England Patriots past New York — the Giants, that is — in America’s biggest game. A win would mark his fourth title, matching the record set by Hall of Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw.
Pretty neat for a guy who’s freshman team went 0-8-1. He was good at baseball, too, and was drafted as a catcher by the Montreal Expos. Then again, his Bay Area high school had already produced someone who could swing a bat — Barry Bonds.
“I’ve never been a great athlete,” the two-time Super Bowl MVP said. “I feel some of my strengths are my awareness and decision-making.”
His humility is what attracts others. Take it from a guy who ought to know.
Back in 1980, country musician Mac Davis wrote a tune that he was supposed to sing in “North Dallas Forty,” a football movie he starred in. The song got cut from the film — later, he wound up with a hit in the playful “Oh Lord It’s Hard to be Humble.”
It goes:
“Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.
“I can’t wait to look in the mirror ’cause I get better looking each day.
“To know me is to love me. I must be a hell of a man.
“Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble, but I’m doing the best that I can.”
“I think that’s the theme song of every guy out there who wishes he were Tom Brady or thinks he is. But if I were him, I would find it hard to be humble,” Davis said in a telephone interview from his home in California.
“He is a stud,” he said.
That’s not quite how Tom MacKenzie remembers Brady.
MacKenzie was Brady’s high school coach at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif. Brady came from a family of talented athletes and after playing linebacker worked his way up to quarterback and earned a scholarship to Michigan.
“His sisters tell a story about how he wrote an essay for an English class that he was going to prove to his big sisters that he would be a household name,” MacKenzie said.
Busy as he’s been lately, by the way, Brady exchanged text messages with MacKenzie a few days ago.
Easy to see why he’s the envy of many.
“I love Tom Brady,” Giants defensive end Michael Strahan said. “I’m jealous that I’m not Tom Brady.”
Answered Brady: “I think he’s trying to butter me up. I certainly don’t think of myself that way.”
Sure, his NFL-record 50 touchdown passes and 6-foot-4, 225-pound physique are impressive. So what if he played golf with a pair of former presidents, attended a State of the Union address at the Capitol as Laura Bush’s guest, appeared on the cover of GQ magazine, guest hosted “Saturday Night Live” in his underwear and recently shot an ad for Stetson cologne?
But perfect? Any faults?
“There’s plenty, trust me,” Brady said this week. “There’s plenty of people that would find some things.”
No telling what Bridget Moynahan thinks. The actress dated Brady for three years before they broke up in December 2006. The following August, with Brady squiring supermodel Gisele Bundchen, Moynahan gave birth to his son.
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