The incredulous Tom Brady

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/11/2012 06:12 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>"Incredulous" in the sense "wide-eyed" is quite common--I am making no
>judgment on the usage, just noting that it seems to be more common than you
>give credit for.

I gave no credit or blame to the sense of "wide-eyed", because I did
not find that in the OED.   (Nor would I use it that way.)  I doubt
that Gasper meant that Brady was "wide-eyed", unbelieving or awed,
about something.

>"Incredible" would just be wrong here--somehow the 4-year
>bench-warmer at Michigan does not strike me as "incredible". The reference
>is to the beginning of his career, not to the career as a whole.

Not to Michigan, rather to the beginning of his professional career,
I think -- viz. the reference to the Lombardi Trophy.   Gasper was
probably thinking of Brady's second season with the Patriots (2001),
when he led them to a Super Bowl victory, the youngest quarterback to
do so, and was named Super Bowl MVP.

Joel


>VS-)
>
>On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > "The incredulous kid quarterback, who hoisted his first Lombardi
> > Trophy 10 years ago, is going to turn 35 in August."
> >
> > Christopher L. Gasper, on the front page of the Boston Globe Sports
> > section today.
> >
> > Although the OED allows (allowed?) "2.a. Not to be believed; =
> > incredible adj.", it calls it "Obs."  I think any writer today should
> > prefer "incredible".
> >
> > Perhaps Gasper meant to contrast Brady with another controversial
> > Boston professional athlete, Tim Thomas, who, as a libertarian who
> > strongly supports the Catholic Church's position against the
> > requirement for Catholic agencies to provide contraceptive coverage
> > in their health insurance policies for employees, is very likely not
> > in-credulous.
> >
> > Joel
> >
>
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