It’s a common-sense unwritten rule that you just don’t compare any current athlete with Tom Brady. For one thing, it’s disrespectful to the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback who spent most of his career with the New England Patriots. For another, it’s 12 shades of awkward for any present-day athlete who’s been dragged into the discussion.

But rules, even unwritten rules, are made to be broken. In that spirit, there’s a Tom Brady-Jayson Tatum comparison that’s been staring us in the face throughout the Boston Celtics’ 2025-26 season.  And here it is: Just as Brady’s 2009 return from the knee injury that doomed his 2008 season instantly turned the Patriots back into a championship-caliber operation, that’s precisely what Tatum’s return has done for the Celtics.

Everyone loves championships. But a star athlete’s return from serious injury is a component of the fan experience that can be exhilarating on a different level. If you were watching the Patriots’ 2008 season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, it had to be heartbreaking to see Brady crumble to the ground after being hit by the Kansas City Chiefs’ Bernard Pollard. He held his knee, and everyone held their breath. Turned out to be ACL and MCL tears in his left knee. Brady’s season was over. New England’s season was over.

With Tatum, it was a ruptured Achilles in the closing minutes of the Celtics’ 121-113 loss to the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden last May. The Celtics lost to the Knicks in six games; even worse, it was feared that Tatum would miss the entire 2025-26 season.

What was surprising about the Brady and Tatum injuries is how well their teams played while they were out. Patriots coach Bill Belichick inserted backup Matt Cassel as his quarterback, and New England somehow fashioned an 11-5 record. It wasn’t good enough to get the Patriots into the playoffs, but it was solid, competitive football.

As for the 2025-26 Celtics, they went 41-21 without Tatum. Like the Brady-less 2008 Patriots, the Tatum-less Celtics played inspired basketball, except that it wasn’t going to be enough to lead to a championship, right?  But Tatum has determined that the future is now. Counting the 32 minutes and 21 points he logged in the Celtics’ 120-112 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Monday night at TD Garden, he’s now played five games since his return.

So let’s go back to the Patriots’ 2009 season opener when Brady made his return. Talk about classic Brady: With a little over two minutes remaining in the game, the Pats trailing the Buffalo Bills 24-13, he connected on back-to-back touchdown passes to Ben Watson. Final score: Patriots 25, Bills 24.

It was a nationally televised game, and it led to national headlines. A sampling:

“Bravo to Brady” — Hartford Courant.

“Tom Terrific takes his time delivering star performance” — The Vancouver Sun.

“Old Brady wows New England” — The Knoxville News-Sentinel.

“Brady’s back” — West Hawaii Today.

And there’s Tatum’s return, which took place on March 6 with the Celtics hosting the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden. Having been allotted a carefully doled-out 27 minutes, 10 seconds of playing time by Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, Tatum scored 15 points in Boston’s 120-110 victory.

Mazzulla was tight with the minutes during Tatum’s first three games back: 27:10, 27:02, 26:46. Tatum didn’t play in the Celtics’ 104-102 loss at Oklahoma City last Thursday but then cracked the 30-minute barrier (32:12) in Boston’s 111-100 victory over the closed-for-repairs Washington Wizards.

I’ll spare you the rollout of “Tatum’s Back!” headlines, other than to point out what appeared atop Jay King’s article for The Athletic after that first game against Dallas: Jayson Tatum on Celtics teammates after return: ‘They’ve motivated me.’ 

Turns out Tatum met with the entire Celtics shebang at the Auerbach Center the day before his return to thank everyone for their contributions to his comeback effort. That was a nice thing for him to do, but it was an observation from Mazzulla that jumped out at me: With Tatum, said the coach, the Celtics are “whole again.”

Now, if you’re in the camp that believes there was a dash too much Hollywood attached to Tatum’s rehabilitation, what with the film crews and nonstop updates, I can’t help you with that. What matters is that a great athlete returned to action a heck of a lot sooner than anybody thought, and guess what: The Celtics are now for-real championship contenders.

I know what you’re thinking: The flaw in the Brady-Tatum comeback comparison is that the 2009 Patriots didn’t go very far in the playoffs. They were, in fact, demolished 33-14 by the Baltimore Ravens in the wild-card round. But that was some four months after Brady’s return — four months after it became fashionable for Pats fans to talk about championships again. And anyway, Brady hung around long enough to quarterback the 2014, ’16 and ’18 Patriots to Super Bowl victories.

It’s a stretch to put it out there that Jaylen Brown (41 points against the Suns Monday night) and Tatum will power the Celtics to three more championships. Those are stories yet to be written. What matters now is that Tatum devoted nearly a year of his life to being where he is today. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he’s a professional athlete. It’s what they do. Except some don’t.

Brady remade himself, and the Patriots were back in business. Now Tatum has remade himself, and the Celtics are back in business.