Patriots QB Tom Brady handled Super Bowl media day with aplomb

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New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady answers questions during Media Day for NFL football's Super Bowl XLVI Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Updated: March 2, 2012 8:18AM

INDIANAPOLIS — The TV entertainment reporter in the Tom Brady jersey had a
question for the Tom Brady in the Tom Brady jersey.

‘‘Did you want this rematch as bad as I did?’’ she said. ‘‘Because I hate the Giants.’’

Oh, no. Nobody could want this as badly as you, my dear. That’s obvious. Brady might have put in hundreds of hours of work since that painful loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, might have sweated and bled and shed a few tears, but it was nothing compared to the agony you have endured these last four years.

Tuesday was media day at the Super Bowl, and reporters, cameramen, photographers and a man in tights and a cape might have trampled the Patriots quarterback if a barrier hadn’t separated them from him. As it was, he almost got run over by a stampede of questions, a few of them bordering on journalistic.

Someone asked Brady if he could name the cast of ‘‘Jersey Shore.’’

‘‘I’ve never seen that show,’’ he said. “I don’t even know what that show is.’’

The fact that he doesn’t might help explain why he is playing in his fifth Super Bowl. The only ‘‘Situation’’ he cares about is third-and-long with his team down by three late in the fourth quarter.

Such a good sport

Brady isn’t a normal guy. He is married to a supermodel. He’s a millionaire many times over. He gets invitations in the mail from people he doesn’t know who want him to be the best man in their weddings. When he went to a restaurant Monday in Indianapolis, police let him drive the wrong way on a one-way street to avoid the crowd.

But there’s a gee-whiz quality to Brady that plays perfectly here in the Hoosier State. On Tuesday, a student reporter from a middle school asked him what he would tell kids about chasing a dream. You almost could smell the smoke from Norman Rockwell’s pipe as the two talked.

‘‘Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do anything that you want to do,’’ Brady said. ‘‘Throughout an athletic career or an academic career, a lot of people will put expectations on you. Whatever you feel you want
to do in life, that’s what you should do because that’s going to make you happy.’’

It was about this time that the man in the tights and the cape, a personality from a show for kids, asked Brady if his Super Bowl game face was different from his regular-season game face. Brady said it was and offered up his best snarl. That’s being a good sport.

Not everybody is like that. There are some surly football players in the world, and it’s hard to picture them pondering the question of which Madonna song they like best, which Brady dutifully did Tuesday.

‘‘Look at this,’’ he said, as he took in the scene. ‘‘How could you ever take this for granted? It’s pretty to cool to think as a kid growing up that a bunch of people would come and watch us play a football game.’’

Golly.

For the first time, fans could buy tickets to media day, sit in the stands and listen to the piped-in questions and answers as reporters interviewed players on the field.

Knowing your audience

About halfway through the hourlong session, Brady realized people in Lucas Oil Stadium were hanging on his every word. He mentioned the Colts, and the crowd roared.

‘‘This is just cool that they can hear me,’’ he said.

More cheers.

He should have sucked up to them: ‘‘Jim Irsay would be a fool to get rid of Peyton Manning!’’ or ‘‘Indiana, not Illinois, is the real Land of Lincoln!’’

Media day is a lot of nonsense wrapped around some serious questions. Sometimes you have to wait for the weighty ones.

‘‘Tom,’’ an earnest reporter began, ‘‘how far back does your friendship go with [NHL star] Sidney Crosby and how much conversation was there before you recommended Dr. Bray to him?’’

The media leaned in.

‘‘I’ve never met Sidney, and I have no idea who Dr. Bray is,’’ Brady said.

Oh.

Right about then, a radio personality showed up wearing a silk robe and the kind of fur hat you might see on a pillaging Mongol.

‘‘It’s the Year of the Dragon, baby,’’ he said. ‘‘Will you have the power of the divine beast, the dragon, on Sunday?’’

Brady, unflappable to the end, smiled.

‘‘Whatever the hell that means, I hope so,’’ he said.