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By the Numbers: 5 ridiculous Tom Brady Super Bowl stats – Sportsnet.ca

Published

4 years ago

February 1, 2021

This just in: Tom Brady has had an illustrious football career and — I’m not sure why no one’s talking about this! — has gone to many Super Bowls. You heard it here first.

At this point, the story of Brady’s incredible career and continued dominance at the age of 43 is about as old hat as you can get. To recap: He won a player record Super Bowls under Bill Belichick with the Patriots, and after leaving New England in free agency last summer made the title game in the first year at the helm of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that didn’t even make the 2019 playoffs.

You know all this. And yet — and yet! — we’re still talking about it with Super Bowl LV just six days away because the numbers behind that story are mind boggling.

To get you primed, or just gas you up, here are a few of those numbers from Brady’s unheard-of Super Bowl career.

50%

Sunday, Feb. 7 marks Brady’s 10th Super Bowl appearance. Put another way: Since his first start for the Patriots in 2001, a span that includes the season he missed almost entirely due to injury, Brady has appeared in half the Super Bowls. One out of every two title games for his entire career to date.

There is no comparable for this in the NFL, where Hall of Famers have gone entire careers without reaching the game (Philip Rivers may soon join that club). And even among legendary signal callers who did make the big game, Brady stands way ahead: Joe Montana appeared in four in the 16 seasons from his first start in 1979 (25 per cent). Peyton Manning appeared in four in the 18 years from his start (22 per cent). Dan Marino appeared in one in 17 (6 per cent).

It’s a feat not just of talent and impact on team success, but of durability over the long term.

Incredibly, Brady’s counterpart in Sunday’s game, Patrick Mahomes, will have also appeared in half the Super Bowls since his first start in 2017. All he’ll have to do to match Brady’s feat now is keep that up over the next 16 years.

315

Brady’s Super Bowl career started off with a 20-17 win over the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams, and he won MVP largely for limiting mistakes and engineering a 47-yard drive late in the fourth to set up the game-winning field goal. But his numbers hardly jump off the page — 16 completions on 27 attempts for one touchdown and just 145 yards.

That strong-but-silent-type effort has not been the story for the vast majority of his title games. From his second appearance onward, Brady has churned up yardage in bunches. He’s now accumulated 2,838 yards in total for an average of 315 per game.

That means, if Brady were to play a full regular season’s worth of Super Bowls — and who’s betting against him at this point? If he can get in six straight after this season (hey, it could happen!), he’ll be playing in his 16th at age 49 in Super Bowl LXI in 2027 — he’d be on pace for 5,045 yards.

That number would be good for the 12th best passing-yardage total in NFL regular-season history. And he’s done all that under the bright lights and increased pressure, when teams have had two full weeks to prepare to make him look like a fool.

52

Related to that last one: For his regular-season career, Brady has averaged 263 yards per game, which means he’s 52 yards per game better in the Super Bowl than on the average Sunday. That’s like being better at job interviews than talking to your friends.

One mile

This isn’t another yardage thing. (And, also, Brady’s 2,838 passing yards actually equals 1.6 miles.) No, this is a pseudo-statistical estimate of just how far ahead of everyone else Brady is in basically every career statistical passing category.

In almost every list of the top 10 Super Bowl producers in each category, you have a totally normal list featuring marginal gaps from 10 to 2, and then Brady WAY ahead of the pack in No. 1. Case in point:

CAREER PASS ATTEMPTS
5) Kurt Warner, 132
4) Jim Kelly, 145
3) John Elway, 152
2) Peyton Manning, 155
1) TOM BRADY, 392

Brady has 85 more passes than the next two guys on the list combined.

CAREER PASS COMPLETIONS
5) Jim Kelly, 81
T3) Joe Montana, 83
T3) Kurt Warner, 83
2) Peyton Manning, 103
1) TOM BRADY, 256

Pretty much what I said above. Here he’s just 13 completions from matching the combined total of the next three guys on the list, and he almost certainly will have done so by the end of the week.

CAREER PASSING TD
T5) Kurt Warner, 6
T5) Steve Young, 6
4) Roger Staubach, 8
3) Terry Bradshaw, 9
2) Joe Montana, 11
1) TOM BRADY, 18

Thanks to Montana absolutely lighting it up in four Super Bowls to the tune of almost three TDs per game, this one is relatively closer than the last two we looked at. But Brady still wins by … yup, a mile.

No. 4

One of the only career lists Brady doesn’t top is interceptions. With six interceptions in nine games, he’s tied for fourth on the list with Fran Tarkenton, who came to that total in just three appearances. The pair sit behind John Elway, who had eight interceptions in five games; Craig Morton, who had seven in two games; and Jim Kelly, who had seven in four games.

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Sports

Champions Trophy host Pakistan says it’s not been told India wants to play cricket games elsewhere

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.

“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”

Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.

The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.

Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.

“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”

Pakistan hosted last year’s Asia Cup but all India games were played in Sri Lanka under a hybrid model for the tournament. Only months later Pakistan did travel to India for the 50-over World Cup.

Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.

“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”

The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.

“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”

Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.

“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.

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AP cricket:

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Dabrowski, Routlife into WTA doubles final with win over Melichar-Martinez, Perez

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.

Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.

The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.

The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.

Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Winger Tajon Buchanan back with Canada after recovering from broken leg

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

Inter Milan winger Tajon Buchanan, recovered from a broken leg suffered in training at this summer’s Copa America, is back in Jesse Marsch’s Canada squad for the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Suriname.

The 25-year-old from Brampton, Ont., underwent surgery July 3 to repair a fractured tibia in Texas.

Canada, ranked 35th in the world, plays No. 136 Suriname on Nov. 15 in Paramaribo. The second leg of the aggregate series is four days later at Toronto’s BMO Field.

There is also a return for veteran winger Junior Hoilett, who last played for Canada in June in a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands in Marsch’s debut at the Canadian helm. The 34-year-old from Brampton, now with Scotland’s Hibernian, has 15 goals in 63 senior appearances for Canada.

Midfielder Ismael Kone, recovered from an ankle injury sustained on club duty with France’s Marseille, also returns. He missed Canada’s last three matches since the fourth-place Copa America loss to Uruguay in July.

But Canada will be without centre back Derek Cornelius, who exited Marseille’s win Sunday over Nantes on a stretcher after suffering an apparent rib injury.

The Canadian men will prepare for Suriname next week at a camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“We are looking forward to getting the group together again with the mindset that there is a trophy on the line,” Marsch said in a statement. “We want to end 2024 the right way with two excellent performances against a competitive Suriname squad and continue building on our tremendous growth this past summer.”

The quarterfinal winners advance to the Nations League Finals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., with the two semifinals scheduled for March 20 and the final and third-place playoff March 23, and qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Thirteen of the 23 players on the Canadian roster are 25 or younger, with 19-year-old defender Jamie Knight-Lebel, currently playing for England’s Crewe Alexandra on loan from Bristol City, the youngest.

Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies captains the side with Stephen Eustaquio, Jonathan Osorio, Richie Laryea, Alistair Johnston and Kamal Miller adding veteran support.

Jonathan David, Cyle Larin and Theo Bair are joined in attack by Minnesota United’s Tani Oluwaseyi.

Niko Sigur, a 21-year-old midfielder with Croatia’s Hadjuk Split, continues in the squad after making his debut in the September friendly against Mexico.

Suriname made it to the Nations League quarterfinals by finishing second to Costa Rica in Group A of the Nations League, ahead of No. 104 Guatemala, No. 161 Guyana and unranked Martinique and Guadeloupe.

“A good team,” Osorio said of Suriname. “These games are always tricky and they’re not easy at all … Suriname is a (former) Dutch colony and they’ll have Dutch players playing at high levels.”

“They won’t be someone we overlook at all,” added the Toronto FC captain, who has 81 Canada caps to his credit.

Located on the northeast coast of South America between Guyana and French Guiana, Suriname was granted independence in 1975 by the Netherlands.

Canada has faced Suriname twice before, both in World Cup qualifying play, winning 4-0 in suburban Chicago in June 2021 and 2-1 in Mexico City in October 1977.

The Canadian men, along with Mexico, the United States and Panama, received a bye into the final eight of the CONCACAF Nations League.

Canada, No. 2 in the CONCACAF rankings, drew Suriname as the best-placed runner-up from League A play.

Canada lost to Jamaica in last year’s Nations League quarterfinal, ousted on the away-goals rule after the series ended in a 4-4 draw. The Canadians lost 2-0 to the U.S. in the final of the 2022-23 tournament and finished fifth in 2019-20.

Canada defeated Panama 2-1 last time out, in an Oct. 15 friendly in Toronto.

Goalkeepers Maxime Crepeau and Jonathan Sirois, defenders Joel Waterman, Laryea and Miller and Osorio took part in a pre-camp this week in Toronto for North America-based players.

Canada Roster

Goalkeepers: Maxime Crepeau, Portland Timbers (MLS); Jonathan Sirois, CF Montreal (MLS); Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United FC (MLS).

Defenders: Moise Bombito, OGC Nice (France); Alphonso Davies, Bayern Munich (Germany); Richie Laryea, Toronto FC (MLS); Alistair Johnston, Celtic (Scotland); Jamie Knight-Lebel. Crewe Alexandra, on loan from Bristol City (England); Kamal Miller, Portland Timbers (MLS); Joel Waterman, CF Montreal (MLS).

Midfielders: Ali Ahmed. Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS); Tajon Buchanan, Inter Milan (Italy); Mathieu Choiniere, Grasshopper Zurich (Switzerland); Stephen Eustaquio, FC Porto (Portugal); Junior Hoilett, Hibernian FC (Scotland); Ismael Kone, Olympique Marseille (France); Jonathan Osorio, Toronto FC (MLS); Jacob Shaffelburg, Nashville SC (MLS); Niko Sigur, Hadjuk Split (Croatia).

Forwards: Theo Bair, AJ Auxerre (France); Jonathan David, LOSC Lille (France); Cyle Larin, RCD Mallorca (Spain); Tani Oluwaseyi, Minnesota United (MLS).

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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