He’s clearly at the end of his career - but looking back over that career, he was the defensive leader on a dynasty that won Super Bowls with their defense (notwithstanding Brady’s two SB MVP awards). Over the course of his career, the guy just… made… plays. I cannot explain the lack of Pro Bowl recognition… I can’t - maybe he should’ve tooted his own horn far louder.

In his 12-yr career (which hopefully isn’t over yet), he’s played in 176 games - starting 111 of them. As discussed, he’s played in five Super Bowls and won three of them. He’s played both middle LB and outside LB, and has long been the leader of a consistently stellar defense. He has 28.5 sacks, 12 INTs (4 returned for TD), and 7 fumble recoveries.

Finally, in addition to the one Pro Bowl selection - he’s had *two* All-Pro selections. Yes, you read that right. All-Pro is inherently more than twice as difficult to achieve than Pro Bowl (given Pro Bowl picks from both conferences and gets extra guys when some players beg out, while All-Pro is one team from the entire NFL and nobody begs out). To me, this speaks to the crime that has been perpetrated on Bruschi by his fellow players in only sending him to one Pro Bowl.

Now by comparison, Andre Tippett to 5 Pro Bowls and was named All-Pro 5 times (same five-year stretch). As an outside LB usually playing on the strong side, he amassed 100 sacks, had 1 INT, and 19 fumble recoveries (returning 2 for TD). I’m not saying Bruschi is Tippett, he’s not - cuz (a) Tippett was better, and (b) Bruschi played in the middle at times (i.e. stop the run) while Tippett was exclusively on the outside.

By I lump the two cuz I’ve long felt Tippett was deserving of HOF induction the moment he retired, and I wonder if Bruschi isn’t deserving as well… though I expect (like Tippett) he’ll be overlooked (at least initially).