Tom Brady began the decade as an obscure backup. He closes it as the most accomplished player in the nation's most popular sport, a three-time champion whose persona has transcended football.

Brady is the NFL's rock star, as much The Boss as Springsteen, as much the American Idol as David Cook.

He's also a candidate for The Associated Press' Athlete of the Decade.

"For one reason, he's won a lot of games," says Broncos star cornerback Champ Bailey. "He's won three Super Bowls and been to four. I think that says a lot about what kind of player he is."

What kind of player is this sixth-round draft pick, who lost his starting job at Michigan and came to New England almost as an afterthought? A quarterback who by 2001 had become a second-stringer behind Drew Bledsoe, then was forced into the starting lineup when Bledsoe was injured two games into the season?

He's a winner. A leader. A clutch performer. The phrases used to describe Montana, Marino, Unitas _ they all apply to Brady.

"I play in a team sport, so leadership is of paramount importance," he says. "All of us in that locker room push each other, and we communicate well. I've never felt that leadership consists of empty words. Instead, I feel that you lead by showing up every day ready to work hard, and be accountable for what you do for yourself and toward others."

And listen to what one of his contemporaries _ and the only true challenger to Brady for the NFL's top player in this century _ has to say:

"I've never been in a practice with him or a huddle with him," Peyton Manning says, "but you just get the sense, and you hear from his teammates and the guys he's played with, that Tom is an excellent leader. Based on strictly what you read and hear, he's one of their top offseason weightlifters and film studiers. Football, it's not just a part-time thing, it's a year-round thing for him. He truly walks the walk, and I think that's important as a quarterback."

Brady couldn't walk the walk, or do much walking of any kind, a year ago. He tore left knee ligaments in the 2008 opener, sidelining him for the rest of the season and depriving the NFL _ not to mention the paparazzi who track every move he and wife Gisele Bundchen make _ of a whole bunch of glamour.

So Brady attacked his rehab the way he goes after defensive backs, and by the middle of this season, fear had returned to the eyes of those defenders.