I was there in Foxborough when Mo Lewis knocked Drew Bledsoe into orbit and a tall, lanky kid no one knew could play with the big boys trotted onto the field against the Jets.

And here we are, more than 13 years later, and the tall, lanky kid is a tall, lanky man preparing to win a game that would, in my opinion, make him the Greatest Of All Time at his position.

He has been caught cursing on television. Rex Ryan detests his celebratory antics. Eli Manning and the Giants wasted him, rattled him twice in the Super Bowl. Ryan did it to him in the 2010 playoffs. Then there is the matter of deflated footballs.

Tom Brady isn’t the perfect quarterback.

He isn’t today’s greatest quarterback.

He will be Greatest Of All Time in two weeks, if he solves this great Seahawks defense and hoists the Lombardi Trophy for the fourth time at the end of Super Bowl XLIX.

All-time QB rankings A panel of eight Post football experts voted for 10 all-time QBs, with 10 points awarded for a first-place vote, 9 for a second-place vote, and so on. Here are the composite rankings: 1. Joe Montana: 71 points 2. Tom Brady: 65 points 3. Johnny Unitas: 56 points 4. Peyton Manning: 44 points 5. John Elway: 39 points 6. Otto Graham: 37 points 7. Dan Marino: 31 points 8. Brett Favre: 26 points 9. Roger Staubach: 19 points 10. Terry Bradshaw: 16 points 11. Aaron Rodgers: 11 points 12. Sammy Baugh: 7 points 13. Steve Young: 6 points 14. Dan Fouts: 4 points 15. (tied) Troy Aikman/Fran Tarkenton/Jim Kelly: 2 points 18. (tied) Bart Starr/Joe Namath: 1 point

The number of Super Bowl rings on a quarterback’s fingers is not the be-all and end-all. Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl, and you will find him on most top 10 lists nevertheless.

Joe Montana’s four-time Super Bowl dominance, especially in the clutch, makes him the man to beat, with John Unitas and his legendary toughness right behind.

But here comes Brady, poised to leapfrog them both.

As it stands now, Brady has thrown for more postseason yards than Peyton Manning (and everyone else), he has thrown more playoff touchdowns than Montana (and everyone else), he has won more postseason games than Montana (and everyone else).

Brady’s everlasting greatness at a time when most feel the twilight closing in on them is a testament to his pride, drive and commitment.

When Montana was 37, he started 11 games for the Chiefs, completed 60.7 percent of his passes for 2,144 yards with 13 TDs and seven INTs.

When Unitas was 37, he completed 51.7 percent of his passes for 2,213 yards with 14 TDs and 18 INTs.

Only Peyton Manning (68.3 completion percentage for 5,477 yards, 55 TDs, 10 INTs) can stand alongside Brady (64.1 completion percentage for 4,109 yards, 33 TDs, nine INTs) and declare life begins at 37 for quarterbacks.

Brady and Bill Belichick have been architects of a longer-running dynasty than anything we have witnessed in the free agent/salary cap era.

This will be the sixth Patriots team Brady has taken to a Super Bowl. No other post-1966 quarterback has done it.

And think about the receivers he’s been asked to make better. Troy Brown and David Patten were his starting receivers in Super Bowl XXXVI. Brown and Deion Branch were the starters in Super Bowl XXXVIII and XXXIX, where Branch was MVP.

It’s startling Brady wasn’t able to win Super Bowl XLII with Randy Moss after throwing 50 TD passes during a perfect regular season, an NFL-record 23 to Moss — especially after hitting Moss with a 6-yard TD toss with 2:42 remaining. But then came David Tyree, and then came Plaxico Burress, a pair of stormy desert memories Brady will be dying to erase in the buildup to Super Bowl XLIX.

A hobbled Rob Gronkowski hardly helped Brady’s cause in his Super Bowl XLVI loss to Eli Manning and the Giants. Brady lost one of the three seasons he would have had with Moss to a torn ACL in 2008.

Brady has had one huge advantage in the mano a mano comparisons with Peyton — he never had to face a Belichick defense.

He did have to face reports of his demise following a nightmare night (4 INTs) in Kansas City at the end of September. Guilty as charged, your honor. Brady’s body language spoke of a beaten man. He was replaced by rookie Jimmy Garappolo after throwing a pick-6 in the fourth quarter, after which an incredulous Belichick found himself answering questions about whether he would be evaluating the quarterback position.

Brady: “Ultimately, it comes down to dependability and consistency for me.”

Brady: “There’s no one that’s going to dig us out of this hole. We have to look each other in the eye.”

He dug them out. He is ice when the circumstance calls for cool, and fire the rest of the time, beloved by his teammates. He is the field general every coach wishes he had.

“He leads emotionally, he leads physically, he leads in the film room, he leads by example,” NFL Network analyst Heath Evans said.

Evans played four years with Brady and admits he is biased when he claims Brady already is the Greatest Of All Time.

“With four rings, this day and age, that’s nuts,” Evans said. “I just think you look at the collection of talent that was consistently around Joe [Montana] — and this is no knock on Joe, it’s just the era he played in. And then now, the constant mixing and matching. … Tommy’s done it with a defense and without a defense. He’s done it with a running game and without running games. He’s done it without Pro Bowl wide receivers and with Pro Bowl wide receivers.”

And with deflated footballs and without deflated footballs.