13:05 et
jax @ ne
6:40 et
min @ phi
The NFC game starts at 6:40 AM? 
My sources give the following start times (EST):
Jaguars at Patriots - 15:05 (3:05 pm)
Vikings at Eagles - 18:40 (6:40 pm)
Woops, the 1 was a typo.
3:05PM ET and 6:40PM ET.
Based on having picked the Saints to beat the Vikings and the Steelers to dominate the Jags, I’ve decided I have no business making football predictions.
Que sera sera.
Four of the top five scoring defenses in the NFL are in the conference championships (sorry #3 rated Chargers). And Brady is the only starting QB for those teams that can legitimately be considered elite or even (although I hate the term) a “Franchise QB”. Makes me happy.
Having the Jags beat the Patriots would make me even more happy. I just don’t see it happening.
Is there any update on HandWatch 2018?
Was Tom Brady considered an elite quarterback before he won the first Super Bowl? (Serious question)
Brady is 11 years older than Foles and Keenum, 15 years older than Bortles. Somehow this “been around a lot longer” never enters into the OMG FAMOUS QB VERSUS THREE NOBODIES trope.
Right now at footballLocks.com it’s:
NE -7.5 vs JAX
MIN -3 @ PHI
And the lines for possible Super Bowl matchups are:
NE -2 over MIN
JAX -2.5 over PHI
MIN -5.5 over JAX
NE -7 over PHI
I love it that 3 teams have a chance to win their first-ever Super Bowl, and of those it would be JAX’s first-ever trip to one. I think Brady is the QB GOAT, but if he plays an off game like the first about 3 quarters of last year’s Super Bowl, then one of those three new teams will win it. Pretty cool.
I still have the Minneapolis Miracle on DVD and I re-watched the final 5:30. Amazing. The score then was MIN 20 - NO 14, and in that final 5:30 there was a blocked punt, 4 lead changes, and 20 points of scoring. Incredible!
• 5:28 — NO blocks MIN punt
• 3:01 — NO 21 @ MIN 20
• 1:34 — NO 21 @ MIN 23
• 0:29 — NO 24 @ MIN 23
• 0:00 — NO 24 @ MIN 30! — the Minneapolis Miracle!
I would love to see a Vikings vs Jaguars Super Bowl. I doubt that’s going to happen.
(I interpret “before he won the first Super Bowl” to mean, quite literally, after he and the Pats won the AFC Conference championship)
Brady was good, but it was his first year as a regular starter taking over when Drew Bledsoe got injured. That he took over like that, as a young unseasoned kid, and took the Pats to the Super Bowl and won it, is a great story. (cf. Kurt Warner)
The direct answer to your question, clearly and by far, is an unequivocal NO.
He became elite adterwards, though, to be the QB GOAT.
He won his first Super Bowl in his first season as a starter, his second season in the NFL. He started the final fourteen games of the season, going 11-3. Granted, he had a hell of a defense when he started (and Belichick is a defensive coach, no matter what craziness he’s devised for his offenses), which helped tremendously, but he’s been playing at the current crazy level pretty much from his third start until today.
I doubt any of the other three will have Tom Brady-like careers, but it seems that the pundits should have enough reflective capacity to see they are judging relatively young quarterbacks against a seasoned one when they sneer at the other three and rend their garments because it won’t be Brady-Brees.
He was barely able to beat out Drew Henson at Michigan, and was drafted in the sixth round.
He wasn’t universally considered an elite QB even after winning his first SB, either.
That was also the year of the “tuck rule game” - in fact, there were jokes made after the Super Bowl along the lines of, “What was the first team to win the Super Bowl after losing a playoff game in the same season?”
Yeah, sour grapes. He was still a good-but-not-yet-elite QB.
Not likely, but agree, it would be very cool to see.
Some strange demon tormenting my soul wants to see the Eagles in the SB, just because of how nicely it would mess up the Early Pick game.
May as well hand the Pats the Lombardi trophy two weeks early, in that case.