Tom Brady Baby: What It Means Heading Into Monday's Match-up With the Texans

Culture

According to reports, the wife of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's — Gisele Bundchen (who is also apparently a model of some kind) — gave birth on Wednesday to a "baby girl," Vivian Lake. Various media outlets have confirmed that it is indeed a baby girl that was given birth to, and not, say, an adolescent girl. This is the couple's second child, as they also have a three year old son named Ben, who turns three this month. Brady has a third child, Jack, with actress Bridget Moynahan.

But the really important question in all this is whether Brady will be focused enough on Monday Night Football to effectively run the Patriots offense against the vaunted defense of the 11-1 Houston Texans. All other things being equal, Brady shouldn't have much trouble moving the Patriots down the field in the air, as the Texans rank 19th in passing yards allowed, and their secondary has had more casualties than Pickett's Charge. Houston is missing Pro Bowl cornerback Jonathan Joseph and slot corner Brice McCain. Adding injury to injury, Joseph's replacement — Alan Ball — missed last week's game with a foot injury.

Of course, the Patriots passing defense has hardly been stellar, and the revolving door of corners and safeties the Patriots have featured certainly reflects this. For instance, on Monday night, the task of covering Texans stud receiver Andre Johnson will fall to Aqib Talib. 

File that one under, "Things that should never happen." 

Whether the Patriots play Johnson mostly one-on-one using Talib is uncertain. But even then, too frequently this season when they've given their corners help up top, it seems to have resulted in the secondary getting torched just the same. Witness: a ghastly 46-yard touchdown bomb from the Seattle Seahawks Russell Wilson to burn the Patriots late in week 6 on a cover 2. 

Oh, the baby. I digress too much. 

So Tom and Gisele had another kid, and that's wonderful. But according to my calculations, since the couple's relationship began, Brady is 0-2 in his Super Bowl appearances. Pre-Gisele, Brady was 3-0. Am I saying Brady's Super Bowl drought can be blamed on his wife? Not necessarily. But it may be time for Tom Brady to reflect on what really matters in life.

Like winning that fourth Super Bowl!