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Brady goes on the record(s)
FOXBOROUGH -- The way Tom Brady looks at it records are meant to be broken.
Monday's opponent, the New Orleans Saints, is on pace to clip some of the records Brady and the Patriots set in 2007, when they became the first team to post a 16-0 regular season. The 10-0 Saints could break the Patriots' marks for points in a season (589) and touchdowns (75).
"I've seen a lot of great offenses since I've been in the league," said Brady, "like the Rams and the Colts. We were one of them, and the Saints are obviously one of them this year. But there is always going to be another great offense. ...They're always going to be broken; there are not too many records other than Cal Ripken's [consecutive games streak] that won't be broken, every other one you can pretty much assume."
Brady said protecting the Patriots' legacy is not added motivation for Monday night's matchup with the Saints.
"Not as much," Brady said. "I think from their standpoint they obviously have a lot of confidence in what they're doing. I remember the kind of confidence we had taking the field as an undefeated team and knowing that if we played a good game it was going to be almost impossible for teams to beat us. If you don't play well you do get beat as evidenced by what happened in the Super Bowl that year.
"We go down there with our own feelings as well, even though we're 7-3 we have a pretty confident team too. We've played a lot of good football this year at times. It hasn't been all perfect, but aside from a few couple of bad halves of football it's been pretty solid. We just have to keep building on the consistency of team. ...They're confident. We're confident. They're one of the best teams in the league. We see ourselves as a team that can beat anybody that we play. Then again we got to go out and do it. It's much easier said than done against this team."
While the Saints are threatening the Patriots' records, Brady is about to set another record of his own.
Brady is about to take Drew Bledsoe's place in the Patriots' record books as the team's all-time leading passer. Brady needs 163 yards on Monday to pass Bledsoe, who had 29,657 yards in a Patriot uniform.
"We email. We talk from time to time," said Brady. "We've always had a great relationship. He's worked extremely hard over the course of his career, and I think he's really enjoying what he's doing now."
The moment it became clear that Brady has replaced Bledsoe as the team's franchise quarterback came more than seven years ago at the site of Monday's game, the Superdome, where Brady marched the Patriots down the field for the winning field goal in Super Bowl XXXVI.
Brady will be playing in the Superdome for the first time since the Patriots' historic 20-17 upset of the St. Louis Rams.
"That was the last time we were there," said Brady. "Mr. Kraft came and talked to the team this morning about that, and he talked about the special memories of that place. You never forget that day. That was pretty unbelievable for all of us. Your first chance to play in a Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl and of course under the circumstances of that season and that year with 9/11 happening and U2 performing at halftime that was pretty unbelievable."
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