CLEVELAND — There’s nothing to hold Tom Brady and the Patriots back now.
The air has cleared around him. He’s freed. Even inflated by the past.
His fight with the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell ended long ago and his four-game suspension has elapsed as well. He’s healthy, showing no signs of any rust — or slippage at 39 — and New England’s offensive arsenal has been replenished with more targets.
Brady’s back. Beware.
“It’s super great,” Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said of the team’s reunion with Brady. “He’s our leader. He’s our guy.”
Returning from a ban for his part in the “Deflategate” scandal, Brady passed for 406 yards and threw three touchdown passes to Martellus Bennett while leading the New England Patriots to a 33-13 win on Sunday over the Cleveland Browns, who had two more quarterbacks sustain injuries.
Brady stood tall in the pocket and fired passes over the middle in traffic. The two-time MVP bought time by checking his other options and floated long passes with perfect touch to Bennett and Gronkowski, his new bookend tight ends who will give defensive coordinators even more to consider when scheming against him.
Brady even ran for 14 yards, punctuating his scramble by springing to his feet and signaling for a first down the way Usain Bolt points after winning a gold medal.
Simply put, Brady was Brady.
“It was fun to have him back out there,” Bennett said after playing his first game with Brady. “He was fired up. We were fired up and we were just trying to make plays for him.”
Brady finished 28 of 40 while recording his eighth career 400-yard game.
He did it with ease against the Browns (0-5), who didn’t put up much of a fight and had the misfortune of being the first team on New England’s schedule to face Brady following his suspension.
And while he may have released some anger on Cleveland, Brady said he’s not holding any grudges and will not look over his shoulder at what’s transpired over the past year.
“This isn’t the time for me to reflect,” he said when asked if the suspension motivated him. “I’m just happy we won and I’m happy when we win anytime we play. I have a job to do and there is no point in looking back at anything, whether we won Super Bowls or lost championship games. The last four weeks, none of it matters.
“I’m just trying to move on.”
Brady missed being around his teammates. He missed hearing 70,000 Patriots fans cheering him in Foxborough or 50,000 cussing at him in New York or Buffalo. Without meaningful football in his life, Brady was lost.
He’s got it back, and got an edge.
The rest of the league might not survive it.
“Him, with the suspension, him without the suspension, as long as he’s on the field, he’s going to be playing at the top level,” Browns cornerback Joe Haden said. “He’s been the best for a long time.”
