Tom Brady invokes Tiger Woods when not using hand injury as an excuse

Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback who ever played, has a lot in common with Tiger Woods, golf’s GOAT to many in the sporting world. So it was not all that surprising to hear the Patriots’ TB12 mention the 14-time major champion in his post-AFC-title-winning press conference.

Both aging superstars have battled injuries, which, given their stature in each athlete’s given professions, hog the headlines. Brady’s wounded hand was the latest boo-boo to go viral. Naturally, the subject of his taped-up thumb was the talk of the postgame interview. But 40-year-old Brady — as was the case prior to the game — did not want to talk about it or use it as an excuse.

He did, however, compare his predicament to a certain former world No. 1 who’s making another return to competition from health issues this week.

“I think it’s kind of arrogant to say it bothered me when we had a pretty good game, so I wouldn’t say that,” the five-time Super Bowl champion told reporters after engineering yet another late-game comeback, this time over the upstart Jacksonville Jaguars, to save New England’s season. “It’s like when Tiger Woods said, ‘I had my C game’ and then he won the tournament.”

Likening his situation to Tiger’s was not that far out there since Brady has not always had his best stuff in the postseason but somehow always manages — despite having his own “C game” or being less than 100 percent healthy — to pull it out in the end. There was that 2008 U.S. Open victory that Tiger won while playing on a broken leg and shredded knee, for example.

While Tiger, 42, hopes to get his season off to a strong start on Thursday at Torrey Pines, Brady aspires to end his by adding a sixth Super Bowl ring to his collection in two weeks in Minnesota.