Shannon Sharpe claims Tom Brady sets up an underdog narrative just to glorify his achievements

Make no mistake about it, despite the fact that Tom Brady was a seventh-round pick two decades ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback has not been the underdog any time he has stepped on the football field in a long time. He arguably hasn't been since he knocked off the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI during his first season as an NFL starter.

"Undisputed with Skip and Shannon" co-host Shannon Sharpe believes that Brady purposely sets himself up to be the underdog in order to glorify his accomplishments.

Sharpe first took aim at Brady not being in the top five in deep-ball completion percentage:

"It took me a while to figure out what you try to do, but you always try to undersell, so therefore you can over deliver. Oh, Tom Brady, back up against the wall. I don't know how he did it. They had him dead to right. He pulled a Houdini.

"First of all, you keep talking about air defense, but Tom Brady was not top five in completion percentage on balls thrown down the field."

Next, he went after the idea that Brady was a deep-ball threat by pointing out that the 2007 Patriots were the only TB12-led team that truly required the quarterback to carry the load with his arm:

"So we know Chris Godwin would have had 100-plus passes. I think he had like 99, 98, 99 passes, and he missed the last 2 to 3 games. Mike Evans is the big play guy. Not a lot of catching touchdowns, especially in the red zone. So that's not their offense. Their offense always had."

"The only time (Tom) Brady really pushed the ball down the field on a consistent basis was 2007 when he had Randy Moss, and they, together, broke the NFL receiving record. Randy had 23 receiving touchdowns in the 16 game and Tom Brady was a unanimous MVP, broke the band record of 49 touchdowns with 50."

"So don't do that, Skip. You and I both know. Get the ball out of your hand under three seconds. That's what (Tom) Brady prides himself on. They did sign Shaq Mason. They traded for Shaq Mason to play him at right guard."

Shannon Sharpe wants Skip Bayless to stop underselling Tom Brady

The dynamic of "Undisputed with Skip and Shannon" is that there are accepted biases that each host has. Skip Bayless has long backed Brady almost universally. Meanwhile, Shannon Sharpe was not having it when it comes to the framing of his achievements.

Sharpe said that he simply wasn't buying Bayless' latest round of covering for Brady:

"Because he's with a New England Patriots. So now we're not going to do that. We're not buying it. We're not gonna buy what you're trying to sell today. We're good. We bought some earlier in the week from somebody else that sold us something. So we're not gonna allow you to sell us something that we don't need."

"What we don't need is you trying to undersell. Oh, my God. (Tom) Brady is his back up against the wall. He's never been in a situation trying to make Brady out to be McGyver. I'm not going to let you do it."

Brady enters Year 23 with sky-high expectations, so anyone that sees the 45-year-old as an underdog should probably adjust theirs.

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