Bananas: The Brady of the Challenge
For a long time, I’ve had a list of Challengers and who I think is their NFL counterpart sitting on my desktop, just waiting to be made into a series. However, it wasn’t until my recent date told me that it is unattractive when a girl knows too much about football, that I’ve decided F it, I’m writing it. Now, with that unnecessary input into my life done with, let’s get into it.
Bananas: The Brady of the Challenge
I can hear the comments already. “Wiz, we’ve already seen this a thousand times.” “Try to say something not boring.” But, how can we compare Challengers to NFL players without talking about the comparison that sparked it all? Bananas’ 7 wins to Brady’s 7 rings is an undeniable link, and I’m hoping beyond hoping that it stays at that number, but it’s not the only thing that links these two.
Shaky Starts
If you’ve ever seen film of Brady’s combine, you’ll understand why Brady wasn’t picked until the 6th round of the draft. He looked lanky and uncoordinated, and if I was a Gm, you can bet he would have been low on my draft board as well. Throughout his rookie year, no one could have expected he would one day be widely regarded as the GOAT.
Now, Bananas’ first season of the Challenge was similarly disappointing. He was the first out on the Duel, called into elimination by a fellow rookie, who thought he’d be the easiest to beat. I will concede, however, that I Can is one of the worst thought out eliminations in Challenge history, and so it is not the best indicator of ability.
Development
Brady’s first year, was also Belichick’s first year as head coach, and they soon proved to be an incredible team. Brady quickly proved people’s assessments of his talent wrong, as he took over as the starting quarterback in his second season and earned his first Super Bowl ring. His next season was lackluster, but he soon made it back to earn two more rings, back-to-back.
Bananas’ first few seasons also gave him his future coach for the Challenge, Kenny Santucci. While they were on separate teams Bananas’ second season, they both made the finals, although, unlike Brady, Bananas’ lost. After a early out on Gauntlet 3, Bananas went on to win his own back-to-back seasons, once again putting him on the Brady track.
Cheaters?
Brady faced a four game suspension for Deflategate, which quite honestly I didn’t follow that closely and for which I just condemned Brady and the Patriots as cheaters (as did many other non-Patriots fans). However, there is confusion over how much it would have helped, and it certainly doesn’t seem as though the game would have had a different result. When you add Spygate into the discussion and figure teams don’t get caught with everything… Who knows.
Bananas is also not a stranger to cheating controversies, most notably in the Rivals 3 final. Sarah has since accused him of taking Adderall to help him stay up all night with minimal side effects. I believe Bananas does have an Adderall prescription, however this dose would have been taken outside of his recommended usage.
