The incredulous Tom Brady

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 11, 2012, at 6:12 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. "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.
>
> VS-)

Hey, who are you calling benchwarmer?  Brady threw for over 2500 yards in 1998 and again in 1999.  I don't know how many games he started in each of those years, but he definitely didn't throw for 5000+ yards combined in those two years while warming the bench.  That really *would* have been incredulous…er, incredible.  He was certainly wide-eyed in that shot I've seen umpteen times of his holding his head after the win in the 2002 Super Bowl against the Rams with the confetti floating down around him, but that's a different issue.

LH
>
> 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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