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Super Bowl MVPs introduced, Tom Brady gets booed by crowd

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady seems to be the most unpopular of all the great NFL players, past and present. At the very least, he the Super Bowl MVP who was booed the loudest on Sunday.

The Super Bowl MVPs were introduced before Super Bowl 50. Everyone who was able showed up. Bart Starr and Chuck Howley were shown waving on video from their houses. Peyton Manning was shown back in the locker room before the game. Dallas Cowboys defensive end Harvey Martin, co-MVP of Super Bowl XII, is the only Super Bowl MVP who has died.

So fans had a lot of great players to react to. And Brady was booed.

It seems inexplicable that Brady has become the NFL's villain. He has won a lot, and many fans resent winners. Other than that, he has been a great ambassador for the sport. He's an awesome story as a sixth-round pick who worked to become arguably the best quarterback ever. But there was deflate-gate. The NFL's sloppy and clumsy investigation has stained Brady, probably forever. It's pretty dumb that such a great player is being booed at a feel-good event.

Brilliant job by commissioner Roger Goodell to make one of the NFL's greatest players ever someone who gets booed at a Super Bowl. Mostly over a trumped-up charge and the NFL's insistence that it smeared Brady publicly at every step. Wonderful work.

The others were cheered, from legends like Joe Namath and Joe Montana to the Super Bowl MVP party crashers like Dexter Jackson and Larry Brown. It's amazing that almost all of them attended. It's great (and somewhat unlikely, considering the first Super Bowl was in January of 1967), that all but Martin are still alive.

Though, NFL receiver Wes Welker noted that some are feeling the effects of playing the NFL, and old age.

But it was fun and great to see almost all of the Super Bowl MVPs in the same place. Even though a three-time Super Bowl MVP didn't get a friendly reception.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!