dont put brees in the same category as brady when it comes to class. brady turned down big money to keep a lot of guys around him the last time he signed. he could have been the highest paid qb in the league. in a league where contracts = bragging rights it speaks volumes of bradys class.
Sorta....yeah Brady's contract was undervalued, but it's set up so that all $57 million is gonna be guaranteed.
The other thing to consider here is that Brady didn't really get any additional weapons from the extra cap space. Danny Amendola has been their biggest offensive free-agent signing. Meanwhile, John Elway has been amassing an armada for Peyton, in spite of the big cap hit Manning poses.
Considering that Belichek is a major-league asshole who will probably end up trading Brady to the Texans, Tom Brady should have just gone for the big money....the level of talent on the team would have been similar, even with $5-10 million less cap space.