Spotlight shines on Brady

FOXBOROUGH -- Tom Brady had just completed Day 4 of training camp at Gillette Stadium yesterday. The Patriot quarterback's hair was matted and wet from wearing a helmet during a morning session in the rain. The stubble on his well-chiseled face resembled the early stages of a "Survivor Island" beard.

This, however, is the face the Patriots franchise, in all its unvarnished glory.

Most adored by female fans, most photographed by the media, most prominently featured on magazine covers, and most recognized by the Boston sports cognoscenti, Brady's face seems to represent something larger than just the Patriots.

After the Red Sox underwent an extreme makeover Saturday by trading Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs, Brady may have unwittingly inherited the mantle of being the face of Boston sports.

"Oh man, it's tough to see," Brady said, offering his sympathy to Garciaparra. "He was one of my favorite players. I hate to see him go."

Brady said he first learned of the four-team blockbuster deal following Saturday's practice. "We all walked in [to the locker room] and saw it on ESPN," Brady said. "I was like, `Jeez, I can't believe that happened.' But it just goes to show you that you never know. You never know. He's been the face of that franchise for eight years and, at some point, you'd like to think you'd always play in the same place, but you never know."

Asked if he was friendly with Garciaparra, Brady said, "I knew him. We talked occasionally. But I was rooting for him. I loved the way he played the game. He was kind of the face of the franchise for the Red Sox. Everyone always talked about Nomar. I saw his jersey everywhere I went -- I don't have one; I don't wear those as much, my throwbacks -- but he was a great role model. He did a lot for the community."

Coach Bill Belichick expressed little in the way of shock or surprise.

"It has been talked about for a while," Belichick said. "I'm sure they did what was best for their team and I respect that."

With Garciaparra now gone from the local landscape, who is likely to replace the beloved shortstop in the hearts and minds of Hub sports fans?

Paul Pierce? Joe Thornton? Sure, they are regarded as the FleetCenter's biggest stars. But here in Foxborough, where football is king, Brady reigns supreme as the brightest heavenly body, not only among the Patriots but also among the Hub's greater constellation of sports stars.

Sports talk radio can blather on about who is, or was, the Best in Boston, but after quarterbacking the Patriots to a pair of Super Bowl titles, there should be no doubt about Brady's credentials.

With Garciaparra's departure, Brady's stature as a local sports icon may grow.

"I think, as a quarterback, you tend to be the one a lot of attention tends to get focused on," Brady said. "It's part of the position and something you kind of accept, but at the same time, I realize that all the other guys that I'm with, they're just as big a reason for the success of our team."

Brady knows how a team can be affected when it loses one of its biggest stars. He went through the adjustment twice with the Patriots after the departures of Drew Bledsoe and Lawyer Milloy, both of whom wound up shuffling off to Buffalo.

"Well, there's friendships that are lost, and there's definitely a leadership void that needs to be filled, and different guys step up and fill it," Brady said. "I know last year when we lost Lawyer, guys like Ted Johnson, and Willie [McGinest], Tedy [Bruschi], Rodney [Harrison], and Ty [Law], everyone stepped up and kind of filled the void."

Garciaparra's trade only served to reinforce one fact for everyone in Foxborough: No matter how beloved, or how big a sports figure becomes, an athlete is still sometimes viewed as nothing more than a commodity to be bought, sold, or traded.

"I think that's professional sports," Brady said. "I think you focus on the things that you can control, and that's your effort and your work ethic and your leadership and your performance.

And even if you do have all those great qualities, still you don't have a lot of control if the franchise decides to go in another direction. So you just try to do the best you can. At least you can go home at night and say, `You know what? I did everything I can do.' "

Belichick, who is intimately acquainted with player trades, offered his take on how management handles decisions to trade away a franchise star.

"When I make a decision, there is only one thing I think about, and that is what is best for the football team. I can't take a poll of everybody and go by what the poll says," he said. "I don't make a decision independently. I certainly would consult with the people in the organization, and that could be a number of people, depending on what the circumstances and the issues are . . . You have to go with what the information tells you is the best decision for the football team.

I really don't believe in the term `gut decisions.' I'm not big on that. I'm big on trying to get the information, trying to analyze it and doing what you think is best with that information rather than just [saying], `Well, this is the way I feel today.' I have a hard time with that one."

With Garciaparra gone, Brady seems to have been put on a higher pedestal. Is the Patriots quarterback now the face of this sports town?

"I wouldn't say so," Brady said, deflecting the idea. "There's a lot of great faces, a lot of guys to be proud of. What makes this team fun to watch is there's so many guys the fans look up to and the fans enjoy watching and the fans cheer for. There's a lot of great teams and there's a lot of great players."