Tom Brady

Tom Brady, for the second straight year, had the best parking space near the New England Patriots' training-camp living quarters at Bryant College. Only the vehicle had changed. That space is awarded each year by the Patriots' strength and conditioning coach, Mike Woicik, to the player who works the hardest in the team's off-season program, and Brady was again that guy. However, instead of the Jeep Wrangler that he used to park there, he brought a Cadillac Escalade. The Escalade is the luxury sport-utility vehicle Brady won by being named the most valuable player of Super Bowl XXXVI, in February - and therein lies the difference in the young quarterback's life.

ON MONDAY, Eric Dickerson joined a list of 15 former NFL players to file a lawsuit in federal court in Houston, seeking compensation for head injuries. The Hall of Fame running back won't be the last. Over 1,000 former NFL players are suing the league because, they contend, not enough was done to educate them about concussions and head trauma. If nothing else, it has gotten people's attention. Michael Silver, of Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday that Tom Brady Sr., the father of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, said he would have hesitated to allow his son to begin playing football if he had known the devastating effects of concussions.

Original reports about Tom Brady's knee injury were grim. Unfortunately for the New England Patriots, the news didn't improve. The star quarterback will miss the entire season with a left knee injury that needs surgery, the team said yesterday. That leaves the Patriots without one of the game's great signal-callers and severely damages their hopes of a return trip to the Super Bowl. Coach Bill Belichick would not say what the injury is, but the play, Brady's reaction and the prognosis all point toward a torn anterior-cruciate ligament.

TIGHT END CHALLENGE: Coming into yesterday's game, the Eagles had done a decent job against opposing tight ends this season. In fact, in the six games before yesterday, they had given up just 20 receptions for 177 yards and one touchdown to tight ends. Yesterday, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski only had four receptions for 59 yards, but one of them was a 24-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter. And tight end Aaron Hernandez caught six passes for 62 yards, including two receptions in a five-play, 76-yard drive that ended with a 41-yard TD pass from Tom Brady to wide receiver Wes Welker in the second quarter.

TOM BRADY won't be applying for the permanent position of chief executive officer of the school district. We're pleased. Not because he has performed poorly as interim CEO. To the contrary, Brady has stabilized a district in turmoil. His no-nonsense, let's-get-the-job-done managerial style has played well with district officials and the School Reform Commission, Mayor Street and Gov. Rendell. Former SRC chairman James Nevels named Brady interim CEO just six weeks after he was hired as the district's chief operating officer.

  Line: Patriots by 1 The skinny: In his last four starts against Miami (2-1), quarterback Tom Brady of the Patriots (2-1) averaged 313 yards passing and three touchdowns. On Monday night, he'll face a defense that's much younger after an off-season makeover. The Dolphins' unit includes seven players with a total of 55 NFL starts. They'll face a quarterback making his 131st start - and going for his 100th win. Brady's .762 winning percentage is the best of any quarterback with at least 50 starts in the Super Bowl era. This one could hinge on whether the Dolphins can slow down a New England team averaging an NFL-high 30 points.

MIAMI - Tom Brady passed for a team-record 517 yards and four touchdowns, including a 99-yarder to Wes Welker, leading New England to a 38-24 romp past the Miami Dolphins on Monday night. Defensive end Jared Odrick picked off a deflected pass to set up a Miami touchdown and end Brady's NFL-record streak of 358 passes without an interception. After that it was all Brady, who went 32 for 48 and became the 11th quarterback to throw for at least 500 yards. Norm Van Brocklin set the record of 554 yards in 1951.

THIS IS NOT the matchup the Eagles need, a week after finally putting it all on the line and winning against the Giants. It would be nice to think Juan Castillo's defense has turned the corner, that Tom Brady won't set the Linc ablaze Sunday, but I think what we saw against the Giants was a defense finally starting to put it all together, not one ready to play at the Pats' level. Remember, before that Jason Babin sack and strip, and Derek Landri's fumble recovery, the prospect of yet another fourth-quarter disaster loomed large.

Currently recovering from a knee injury suffered this offseason, Terrell Owens is looking for a job. During an interview with ESPN, Owens said that his knee is at "75 percent" and briefly discussed how he had traveled overseas to explore using stem-cell therapy. When asked for specifics about his comeback, Owens responded, "A month or less, I'll give you that, a month or less. " The $15,000 hurt locker The NFL has fined four players $15,000 each for what it says are rough hits.

New England quarterback Tom Brady had a 103-degree fever the night before the Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game, Sports Illustrated reported. The magazine said in this week's issue that Brady had an intravenous line in his left - non-throwing - arm Saturday night while fighting off chills in his Pittsburgh hotel room. In temperatures of 11 degrees, Brady threw for two touchdowns with no interceptions. Also, Brady has filed suit against General Motors Corp.

ON MONDAY, Eric Dickerson joined a list of 15 former NFL players to file a lawsuit in federal court in Houston, seeking compensation for head injuries. The Hall of Fame running back won't be the last. Over 1,000 former NFL players are suing the league because, they contend, not enough was done to educate them about concussions and head trauma. If nothing else, it has gotten people's attention. Michael Silver, of Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday that Tom Brady Sr., the father of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, said he would have hesitated to allow his son to begin playing football if he had known the devastating effects of concussions.

FOOTBALL is a team game. Strutting on the catwalk is flying solo. So is it any wonder that superdupermodel Gisele Bundchen started finger-pointing after the Patriots' loss Sunday? How could her husband, Tom Brady, have gone down in defeat without it being someone else's fault? Heck, she'd prayed for him. She'd asked her relatives, friends and fans to pray for him. Maybe she should have asked them to pray for his team - for receivers Wes Welker, Aaron Hernandez, Deion Branch and for the linemen he needed for protection.

INDIANAPOLIS - Bill Belichick gave clear instructions to his defensive unit: Let the runner score. Playing the odds and inviting critics, the calculating coach of the New England Patriots told his players to get out of the way, open a wide path for Ahmad Bradshaw and give Tom Brady a chance to win the Super Bowl in the final 57 seconds. Unusual? Certainly. Crazy? Not at all. The strategy failed, and the New York Giants won, 21-17, on Sunday night. But Belichick was certain it gave the Patriots their best opportunity.

INDIANAPOLIS - Tom Brady's two long incompletions in the final minutes, and several missed chances throughout the game cost the New England Patriots a chance at another Super Bowl victory. It also resulted in their second loss to the New York Giants in the big game in five seasons, 21-17, last night. "We just came up a little bit short," Brady said. "There were some missed opportunities out there. It was a very hard-fought game. We fought 'til the end. I'm very proud of that.

INDIANAPOLIS - It's as prominent a facial feature as Joe Paterno's nose. The players closest to Bill O'Brien often tease him about it. They even have a nickname for his cleft chin. "Butt chin," Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer said. Tom Brady also likes to pick on O'Brien's receding hairline, according to Hoyer - not that the Patriots' offensive coordinator is the butt of every joke. He likes to give as much as he takes. It's the kind of atmosphere O'Brien has fostered with his quarterbacks, and one that stands in contrast to his public persona as a fiery, intense competitor.

INDIANAPOLIS - It sounds simple enough: Get to the quarterback, rattle him, and you will win. But it means, oh, so much more when that quarterback is Tom Brady. And there might not be a team better equipped to pressure the New England Patriots' Hall of Fame-bound passer than the New York Giants. They've done it before, and if they can do it again many believe the Giants will once again upset the Patriots in a Super Bowl. Four years ago, New York hounded Brady and sacked him five times on the way to a 17-14 shocker of a win in XLII.

INDIANAPOLIS - They're baaaacck. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have returned to the Super Bowl, and once again the New England Patriots quarterback and head coach are a victory away from adding their names to the record books. They've already made their mark in the NFL, obviously, and will set at least another at kickoff by becoming the starting quarterback-coach tandem with the most Super Bowl appearances, with five. But Brady and Belichick struck out at matching the four Super Bowl titles of quarterbacks Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw and coach Chuck Noll the last time they made it to the NFL final.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The New York Giants are Tom Coughlin's team. The Maras and Tischs own the NFC champions. General manager Jerry Reese built them and made them Super Bowl ready. This team, though, is all Coughlin. The expression the players have used in their recent five-game run to the title game is "all in," and it's all in Tom's way. They have bought in 100 percent with their 65-year-old coach, and he is enjoying every second of it. When the Giants (12-7) ended the New England Patriots' 20-game regular-season winning streak at home in November, Coughlin was hoisted in the air by his players.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Joe Flacco outplayed the great Tom Brady. Threw two touchdown passes to Brady's none. Threw one interception to Brady's two. Threw for 48 more yards than the Hall of Fame lock with the supermodel wife. Even ran for 25 more yards than Tom Terrific. But fairly or unfairly, quarterbacks are judged more by their ring collection than their passing yards or touchdown throws, or even their playoff appearances. Thanks to a 32-yard field goal attempt by the Ravens' Billy Cundiff that sailed wide left with 11 seconds left yesterday, Brady is headed to his fifth Super Bowl, while Flacco is going back to Baltimore, where he will continue to be viewed as a good-but-not-great quarterback until he has his hands around a Lombardi Trophy.

FOXBORO, Mass. - Joe Flacco answered his critics. He even answered Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Flacco, the highly scrutinized Audubon native and former University of Delaware star, outplayed Brady in the Patriots' house and had the Ravens in position to win, or at least send Sunday's game to overtime. But Ravens wide receiver Lee Evans couldn't hold onto what could have been a game-winning touchdown with 27 seconds left, and moments later Billy Cundiff pulled a potential game-tying 32-yard field goal wide left, effectively ending the game.