The NFL is officially back. The 2021 season kicks off tonight with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Dallas Cowboys, and it will be the start of the Buccaneers’ quest to repeat as Super Bowl Champions. The game will kick off at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC. It can also be streamed on Peacock, the NBC Sports app and the Yahoo Sports app.
The Buccanneers have the tools to win another Super Bowl and it all starts with Tom Brady. He is entering his second year with Tampa Bay but the 44-year-old has been in the league for 22 seasons. In 2020, Brady played the entire season with a torn MCL in his left knee and still led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
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“It’s good for me to feel like I can move around freely,” Brady said this week to the Tampa Bay Times. “I had a knee sleeve on for 13 years. Just that little bit of compression keeps a hamstring from working the right way. You try to compress the knee to keep it more stable, but then you’re also compressing the quad. This is the first time that I’ve been able to run and not think about it. I’m not going to turn into Michael Vick out there but at least I’m not going to be super restricted.”
While the Buccaneers are looking to defend their title, the Cowboys are looking to get back into the playoff picture. Last season, Dallas suffered a big blow when quarterback Dak Prescott was lost for the season due to a compound fracture and dislocation to his right ankle. The Cowboys finished the year with a 6-10 record in 2020, the team’s first losing season since 2015.
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy recently spoke to reporters about the challenges facing Brady. “Frankly, I think it’s awesome for our younger players to experience this right out the gate. When you have a chance to play against a championship quarterback; championship quarterbacks are different. They pose a whole different challenge to you,” McCarthy said, per NFL.com. “When you play the championship quarterbacks, you know that they’re always going to be in the game, they’re always going to be pressing your defense and they’ll definitely factor in the end of the game.”
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