HOUSTON After winning a record fifth Super Bowl championship and fourth MVP award, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady went to his knees and cried.It was even more than guiding the Patriots to 31 unanswered points in an astounding, come-from-behind, 34-28 overtime victory against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI on Sunday. For Brady, it was more than completing 43 of 62 passes for 466 yards and two touchdowns as he rebounded from his first Super Bowl pick-six — an 82-yarder by Robert Alford — and a 28-3 deficit in the third quarter.And it was more than retribution for being suspended four games at the beginning of the season as part of the NFL’s embarrassing Deflategate debacle.Even before the game, Brady dedicated this game to his mother, Galynn, who was been battling an illness and was at the game with most of his family. Patriots owner Robert Kraft said postgame Sunday that Galynn Brady underwent chemotherapy and radiation to treat cancer throughout the 2016 season.”It was special to have my mom and dad here and so many relatives, the most I remember having at one game,” he said. “Yeah, they’re all happy. It’s nice to have everybody here, and it’s going to be some celebration tonight.”However, he admitted he didn’t put on such a dramatic show on purpose for anyone.”That was exactly the way we didn’t plan it,” he said. “Everything we didn’t want to do. But that was a great football game … and it shows you that is why these games are 60 minutes.”Actually, this one took 63:58 of game time, with the overage accounted for during the Patriots’ eight-play, 75-yard drive that ended with James White’s game-ending, 2-yard touchdown run. In all, White carried six times for 28 yards and two scores to go with a Super Bowl-record 14 catches for 110 yards and a touchdown.”James White, he is just everything you want in a teammate,” Brady said. “We kept going to him, that speaks for itself.”Of course, Brady’s stats were more than impressive, despite a shaky start as he misfired early while under pressure and finished with five sacks and that wrong-way touchdown via interception.Otherwise, Brady set Super Bowl single-game records in pass attempts, completions and passing yards and is only the second player in Super Bowl history to pass for more than 400 yards in a game, joining Super Bowl XXXIV MVP Kurt Warner (414). He also extended his Super Bowl records for most career completions (207), passing yards (2,071) and touchdown passes (15).In the first-ever Super Bowl to go to overtime, Brady, a 17th-year player from Michigan, helped New England rally from a 25-point deficit, the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.And what brainstorm did he credit for igniting the comeback? No brainstorm.”I wasn’t thinking much, you know,” he said when asked about thoughts at halftime. “I was thinking we just got to score, and then we scored a touchdown and it was nine (points), and then we got the turnover, and then …”And then Brady made a funny face and shrugged as he tried to recall the sequence.”There was a lot of stuff that happened,” he said, “and I got hit pretty hard, so … It’s 28-12 and then we got 28-20 and then 28-28 and then 34-28. Another game coming down to the end. How about that?”
