Tom Brady ended the season collecting the Super Bowl MVP award from Roger Goodell, who had suspended him for its first four games, but handled Deflategate questions as expertly as he has dealt with opposing defences

Tom Brady did not make things awkward. After orchestrating the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history on Sunday, overturning a 25-point deficit to beat Atlanta, the New England Patriots quarterback still had one more thorny task left to fulfil: collecting the game’s Most Valuable Player award from the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell.

The relationship between the pair has not exactly been warm. Goodell’s decision to suspend Brady for four games as a punishment for his role in the Deflategate scandal – in which the Patriots were accused of deliberately underinflating footballs for a 2015 play-off game against Indianapolis – was contested all the way to the second US circuit court of appeals, before being enforced at the start of this season.

Although Brady eventually accepted the suspension, both he and the Patriots organisation have always fiercely denied the allegations. Goodell, for his part, has not attended a single game at New England’s Gillette Stadium in two years. So the prospect of his sharing a stage with Brady at the customary MVP press conference on Monday morning in Houston was intriguing.

Tom Brady: the quarterback who even time can't beat | Les Carpenter Read more

The player himself, though, had no interest in playing to the crowd. When the inevitable question came about his relationship with Goodell, he dodged it as expertly as he has defenders all throughout this remarkable season.

Asked whether he thought this moment might start to repair the damage done between the two of them, Brady replied: “It’s just such an exciting game, and it’s an honour to be here and have the commissioner present us with this trophy. My kids will be happy to see that trophy. They say: ‘Daddy, what about the trophy?’ And I guess I’m bringing one home, so that’s pretty cool.”

Brady was everything that he always is on these occasions: charming, polite and impeccably well put together despite protesting that his had been a late night of celebrations.

He praised the Falcons and deflected the credit for New England’s success to his team-mates, arguing that running back James White – who scored three touchdowns – should have been the one to receive the MVP.

His one acknowledged regret had to do with the mysterious disappearance of the shirt he wore during Sunday’s game. TV crews in the Patriots locker room captured the moment when he realised it was missing on Sunday night, to obvious disappointment and frustration.

“My jersey, I put it in a bag, and I came out and it wasn’t there any more,” he said when asked about the story on Monday. “That’s unfortunate, because it’s a nice piece of memorabilia. If it shows up on eBay somewhere, someone let me know, I’ll try to track that down.”

In the end, the most strident comment on Deflategate might have come from the Patriots’ head coach, Bill Belichick, who spoke to the press after Brady. Although not asked directly about the scandal, he used a broader question about passing accuracy as a platform to express his frustration with the narrative that claimed his quarterback had excelled this year because he was trying to prove a point to Goodell.

“With all due respect, I think it’s really inappropriate to suggest that in Tom’s career he’s been anything other than a great team-mate, a great worker, and has given us every single ounce of effort, blood, sweat and tears that he has,” said Belichick.

The internet reacts to the Patriots' classic Super Bowl comeback Read more

“To insinuate that this year was somehow different, that this year he competed harder or did anything to a higher degree than he ever has in the past is insulting to the tremendous effort and leadership and competitiveness that he’s shown for the 17 years that I’ve coached him.

“He’s been like that every year, every day, every week, every practice. I don’t care if it’s in May, August or January. Tom Brady gives us his best every time he steps onto the field.”

How much longer will he continue to do so? Victory made Brady second player in NFL history – and the first quarterback – to win five Super Bowls – surpassing his childhood idol Joe Montana. Now 39 years old, this could have been a perfect way to ride off into the sunset, but nothing about his current performance level, or his words, suggests it is something he is ready to consider.

“You know, I don’t feel 39,” said Brady on Monday. “I hang out with a bunch of 20-year-olds, so that makes you feel pretty young.” Winning Super Bowls cannot hurt, either.