Saints Spoil Debut

Not so fast, Tom Brady. This Tampa Bay Buccaneers stuff will take some time.

Brady’s much-anticipated debut in a Bucs uniform came with a reality check at an empty Superdome that gives pause to the predictions of some people that a Super Bowl is some sort of destiny.

Sure, it’s still possible that the Bucs can become the first team to host a Super Bowl in their home stadium. It’s only Week 1. Not time to overreact.

Yet the first impression clearly did not live up to the hype.

Brady threw two interceptions – one returned 36 yards for a score by Janoris Jenkins, another by Marcus Williams setting up an Alvin Kamara touchdown – to help dig the hole that the Bucs couldn’t climb out of during a 34-23 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

The NFL’s oldest active player, Brady, 43, looked the part at times, while struggling to find a consistent rhythm. In completing 23 of 36 passes for 239 yards, he produced a ho-hum passer rating (78.4), was sacked three times and had as many picks as TD passes (2).

Never mind the sentimental coincidence that Brady’s new chapter was launched at the site of the first of his six Super Bowl triumphs with the New England Patriots.

It will take time for all of the Bucs’ new pieces, including Rob Gronkowski and Leonard Fournette, to jell. Yet it’s also apparent that after bullying so many opponents in dominating the AFC East with the Patriots (18 division titles in 20 years), Brady’s new reality is that his new team is hardly the bully of the NFC South. That tag, at the moment, belongs to the Saints.

Brady was reminded of such in his official welcome to the NFC South.