ATLANTA — Playing against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl 17 years ago, Bill Belichick had a decision to make.

The Rams had tied the score late, kicked the ball off, and the Patriots returned it to their 17-yard-line with a little over a minute to go.

While TV analyst John Madden suggested the best move for the Patriots was to have 24-year-old quarterback Tom Brady take a knee and head for overtime, Belichick didn’t think that was his best chance.

Belichick knew the makeup of his young quarterback. There wasn’t a lot of time, but he trusted Brady to make enough plays in the two-minute drill to move them close enough for Adam Vinatieri to win the game.

Forget taking a knee. It was here that the legend of Brady was born.

“Playing in this game, you have the two best teams. You fight it out. One team wins. There’s no do-overs. There’s no retakes. (No) Hollywood scripts,” Brady said Thursday with respect to the Super Bowl. “This is live bullets. You have to get the job done under pressure.”

And that’s exactly what happened. A cool, calm, ice-water-in-his-veins Brady delivered the first of what has become many game-winning drives in his illustrious career.

Kurt Warner, the quarterback on the opposite sideline, didn’t know all that much about his opponent that day except he hailed from northern California, went to Michigan, and took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe Week 2 of that season.

“It was a great story about a young kid,” said Warner. “But my impression of him at the time was not that he was going to be the greatest quarterback to ever play.”

Like night and day

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“How has he changed? It’s night and day. At that point in time, he was asked to manage games, not make mistakes, make a few plays, but we were going to win other ways,” Warner said when asked the difference between Brady now and then. “Now, they ask him to do anything and everything. Sometimes, he has to throw it 50 times. Sometimes, he just has to make that one drive. He’s just so in command now of whatever they ask him to do. He can win and carry you with his right arm. He was not that guy early in his career, as most young guys aren’t. But now, he’s as good as anybody.”

In that first Super Bowl, Brady was 16-of-27 for 145 yards and a touchdown. Six of those completions came during the game-winning drive as he went 6-for-8 for 53 yards, the big play a 23-yard completion to Troy Brown.

“I think the only thing that might be the same now, as it was back then, was his confidence in himself,” said Brown, “and his positive thinking about getting through every situation.”

No question, Brady has always been a believer in his abilities to overcome any odds or any obstacles. He’s always walked the walk and backed it up on the field.

But what he showed the world in 2002 only scratched the surface of what he is now as a quarterback.

“Yeah, Tom’s a much better player now, then he was then,” said Brown. “At 41, he’s got a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience that he works with every day. I don’t think anybody files away as much stuff, and is able to retain as much stuff as he does. Plus, there isn’t another player that can say they’ve seen more things than he’s seen defensively. He’s able to figure things out. So he’s pretty comfortable out there.”

He’s seen it all

Brady didn’t have the all answers to the test during that first Super Bowl. He’s pretty much seen it all now. There isn’t too much any defensive coordinator can throw at him that will surprise him or throw him off very long.

“Now, he has much more experience. He knows what’s going on. You see him as the general. He’s the leader in a different way,” said running backs coach Ivan Fears, who was also with the team for that first Super Bowl win. “It doesn’t have to do it with touchdown passes. He can do it with his knowledge of the game. He can get us in the right play, get us out of trouble, keep us from getting blown up. That’s what it’s about.”

Then there’s the legendary quick release.

Brady got rid of it pretty quick when he first came on the radar in the NFL. Like 2019, he didn’t mess around in the pocket when he first started out. But people who played with him then, and watch him now believe he’s even quicker — at age 41.

“You wouldn’t think it could get out of his hands any quicker than it did back then,” said Brown, “but it’s getting out of his hands a whole lot quicker now. He just knows all the reads, man, and where the ball should go after that. It’s kind of hard to stop somebody when they got the answers to the test.”

Whether it’s Brown, Tedy Bruschi or Willie McGinest, none of them could have imagined what transpired for Brady, even after he helped lead them to their first Super Bowl. Whether it was the four championships after the first one, all the MVPs, the passing records, no one could have envisioned what he became even with the greatness Brady displayed in that closing minute.

“I had no idea where it was heading to, but I knew he had star power, and I knew he had a will to win,” said Brown. “You knew that part about him, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted the kind of success he’s had, and the kind of success this football team has had.”

Bruschi said Brady has evolved from a quarterback who basically was there not to screw it up, to one who is the cornerstone of the offense.

“I don’t think any of us knew what we had back in ’01 . . . It was a team, the foundation was special teams and defense. ‘We’ve got this young quarterback. He’s learning as he goes, and so let’s play like that.’ That’s how it started,” said Bruschi. “Now it’s sort of turned into ‘The quarterback’s gotta do a lot to get this team to be successful.’’’

Charlie Weis, who was the offensive coordinator for the Patriots early run of Super Bowl wins, joked that Brady used to be a normal guy who used to eat cheeseburgers and fries and drink beer during the first championship. Now, that’s changed. His body has gone through some transformations over the course of two decades as he’s gotten leaner and more pliable with the TB12 diet and training methods.

As for his football playing, we’ll let Weis tell it.

“He’s always been smart. He’s always been prepared. He’s always gone into games calm. The first (Super Bowl) after we went off the field (after warmups) after all that long stuff before the game, he took a nap. And this was the kid that was supposed to be so nervous? He actually took a nap for about 10 minutes,” said Weis. “He was always calm. The thing is right now, he’s just so confident. Back then, he was the quarterback earning his way up. Right now, he’s like a coach on the field. When you need to get yelled at, or need to get on someone, he does that, too. To this day, he blames me for his foul mouth. He says he never used to swear until I coached him. All of a sudden, bad words started coming out of his mouth. For all you Patriot fans, I take the blame for his New Jersey-laden verbiage.”

At another level

Naturally, at different points during the week, Brady has been asked the question, or different forms of the question. On Thursday he was asked how he might be better than he was during that first Super Bowl against the Rams.

“I think I’m a better player now than I was in 2001. I don’t think I was the best player I could possibly be at that point. I think there’s been a lot of work and effort over years to get to where I’m at now,” he said. “It’s really about playing at a championship level. I think that takes a different shape every year based on how the team is set up.”

Early on, the team relied heavily on defense to win. Brady did his part, and did it well during those years.

“As things have changed, our offense has developed and grown. We’ve become more efficient on offense,” he said. “Our defense has had some incredible years. I’d say we’re a pretty balanced team now. Offense, defense, special teams, all of us are in a position where we can make an impact on the game.”

Whether it’s 2002, or 2019, chances are, the focus will be on Brady with the game on the line.

Said Weis: “I’d say no matter what year you’re talking about, you just gotta love the way the guy plays.”