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BY IRA KAUFMAN

A couple of NFL senior citizens are battling it out for No. 4.

Tom Brady, forever young at the age of 44, is a stride ahead of 38-year-old Aaron Rodgers in the race for league MVP. The Bucs and the Packers are each 10-3, with Green Bay holding a slight tie-breaker edge for the NFC’s No. 1 seed if both teams win out.

Even if the Packers earn that first-round bye, the MVP award is Brady’s to lose. He directs the league’s highest-scoring offense and ranks No. 1 in completions, passing yards and TD passes.

He gets the ball out quickly and accurately, minimizing hits by frustrated pass rushers who always seem to arrive a step too late.

Tom Brady fans are seeking a different kind of Aaron Rodgers knockout, explains Ira Kaufman.

Brady and Rodgers have each captured the league’s most prestigious individual award three times. Rodgers was the runaway winner last season, when he threw 48 TD passes and only five interceptions for a remarkable passer rating of 121.5.

He couldn’t be expected to match those numbers in 2021 — and he hasn’t. Still, Rodgers currently boasts the NFL’s No. 1 passer rating (108.8) while throwing for 27 TDs and four picks. He has arguably the league’s premier receiver on his side in Davante Adams, but Rodgers certainly doesn’t enjoy as many weapons as Brady.

If Brady earns this honor at his age, it will rank among the great achievements in modern-day sports history. He’ll be the only man in the arena, setting a precedent that will be difficult to top.

Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp are in the midst of sensational seasons, but they’re on the outside looking in. The league MVP award has gone to a quarterback in 13 of the past 14 seasons, including the last eight in a row. The only outlier was Adrian Peterson in 2012, when he ran for 2,097 yards, just nine yards short of breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season mark..

It’s going to be either Brady or Rodgers and, barring injury, it looks like it’s Brady’s year. You still have to give a ton of credit to Rodgers, who has thrown 10 TD passes and zero picks in his past three games while nursing an injured toe.

The Other MVP

I’ll also be voting for the other big award, Coach of the Year. Even if Bruce Arians wins out and the Bucs finish 14-3, he’s a longshot to secure the honor for the third time. He won it in 2012 with Indianapolis and in 2014 with Arizona.

Arians has done a nice job warding off any complacency and compensating for a rash of injuries to the Tampa Bay secondary.

Bucco Bruce Arians.

The main contenders are Kliff Kingsbury and Bill Belichick, who recently touted Kingsbury for the award. The Cardinals haven’t made the playoffs since the 2015 season, when Arians guided Arizona to the NFC title game. Kingsbury entered this year with a 13-18-1 mark as head coach and voters are often swayed by underdog stories.

That hurts Arians because everyone expected the 2021 Bucs to be a contender.

Belichick experienced an insufferable 2020 season, watching Brady lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy while the Patriots were shut out of the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. But anyone who thought Belichick would continue to struggle without Brady has been proven wrong as New England stands at 9-4 with a rookie quarterback.

The Pats have outscored opponents by 150 points, the most lopsided margin in the league, as Belichick builds a compelling case for a fourth Coach of the Year award, which would tie the record held by Don Shula.

Another Super Bowl title would surely help Arians forget about a likely snub and elevate him into the Hall of Fame conversation.

Wouldn’t it be juicy to see Arians matched up against Kingsbury in an NFC championship game before taking on Belichick in the Super Bowl?

The league MVP and Coach of the Year awards will be announced on the NFL Honors show, slated for Feb. 10, three days before the NFL’s showcase event. Brady and Arians are both likely to attend.

One of them figures to walk out with some shiny new hardware.

Yes, that warranty includes USED vehicles!
Ira drives a 2020 Ford Escape (cherry red).