There's been a lot of talk hereabouts about athletic entitlement, with the Red Sox -- seen as spoiled and underachieving -- being used by talk-show hosts as a prime example.
But that's not something local fans will ever have to worry about with Tom Brady.
The Patriots quarterback -- in an interview with SI.com's Peter King about his fundraiser for organization called Best Buddies, a volunteer movement that promotes personal and professional relationships and work opportunities for intellectually and developmentally disabled people -- said he wants to play his entire career in New England, but thinks he'll have to keep earning the job year after year.
"I just met with Coach Bill Belichick last Thursday morning,'' Brady said. "I still feel like I'm in my first year trying to prove myself. There's no entitlement around Coach Belichick. I've got to be the best guy for him to keep playing me. When I'm not, someone else will play.''
He pointed to Peyton Manning moving from the Colts to the Broncos as proof that nothing is guaranteed in the NFL.
"That's a great example of how sometimes true professionals have to move on,'' he said. "Nothing surprises me anymore in the NFL.''
He also touched on several other topics:
New England Patriots
On Matt Light's retirement: "Well, Matt called me a while ago and told me what he was planning to do, and I've called him every week since then trying to talk him out of it. He had such a great year for us. But there was no way I was going to be able to talk him out of it. He'll be a tough player to replace. But, you know, every year in this game, there's a lot of change.''
On how long he plans to play: "Gisele Bundchen, his wife said to me, 'When I met you in 2006, you said you wanted to play 10 more years. How come that number never goes down?' It's that I love the game. I love the game. I'm going to play until they tell me they don't want me anymore.''
On his arm strength, after King noted a fourth-quarter pass in the Super Bowl to Rob Gronkowski was underthrown by four to six yards and intercepted by Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn: "It was a bad throw. Bad throw. You hope your bad throws don't come at big times or really hurt the team, but that one did. Bad throw, bad decision . . . I can throw the ball today as far as I've ever been able to throw it. That's not the issue there. Brett Favre threw it great in his last year or so. 50-year-old Rockies pitcher Jamie Moyer's still getting people out. That's not a problem.''