NFL Sunday awards: Tom Brady’s Detroit dream, a Dallas Cowboys nightmare and Drake Maye’s New England Patriots bow

Ben Johnson and the Detroit Lions put on a masterclass to embarrass the Dallas Cowboys, while the Jacksonville Jaguars’ misery continued amid their extended stay in London; watch Week Seven begin on Thursday night when the New Orleans Saints face the Denver Broncos

Story of the day

In 2018, Rob Gronkowski threatened to retire if the New England Patriots went through with a deal that would have seen him traded to the Detroit Lions. In 2020, I spoke to the agent of an NFL Draft-bound college prospect who admitted he was dreading the prospect of his player “ending up in a dead market like Detroit”. On Sunday night, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady said he would “love to be quarterback” of the current Detroit Lions team.

“When I look at this offense, it reminds me of what great offense should be in the NFL,” he said from the broadcast booth during the Lions’ 47-9 rout of the Dallas Cowboys.

The discourse in Detroit has transformed dramatically, a franchise so often associated with its grit in the face of hardship evolving into one of the NFL’s slickest, most innovative and explosive new contenders behind a leader in Dan Campbell, who defies the modern rejection of a rah-rah culture while striking the perfect balance between fraternal heart and elite coaching. For so long it might have been the Lions that were prone to ridicule; the tables turned as they humiliated a Cowboys team teetering towards capitulation. Isn’t it always?