In the day and age of social media, blogs and the ever-increasing need for rapid reaction to sports events, what has happened to Tom Brady following the Patriots’ 21-17 loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI is astounding.

As we watched the final Hail Mary pass flail to the ground, just out of reach of the stretched arms of Rob Gronkowski, Brady’s legacy took a hit.

Sure, the man is the owner of three Super Bowl rings, a supermodel wife and multiple endorsement contracts.

But on the biggest stage, he failed for the second time to beat Eli Manning’s Giants.

An interception, an intentional grounding call that put two points on the board for the Giants via a safety and several missed chances in the late stages that forced the aforementioned Hail Mary.

And despite all that, we’re here to tell you why it was not Brady’s fault the Patriots lost Sunday.

Without Brady, the Patriots aren’t the Patriots. The man may very well be the greatest quarterback of all time, even with two straight Super Bowl losses.

Brady carried a dreadful Patriots defense this season and, within the game itself, brought New England back when it looked like New York had all the momentum.

At one point, Brady went 16-for-16 in a stretch in the middle of the game, including two touchdowns in that time that had the Patriots up 17-9 before the eventual downfall.

As his wife Gisele Bundchen pointed out angrily after the game, his receivers didn’t help him out late in the game either. Wes Welker, Deion Branch and Aaron Hernandez each dropped passes on the final drive, plays that most certainly would have put the Patriots in position for a better play at the end.

For people to put all the blame on him – or any one person, for that matter – is absolutely ridiculous. Twitter and Facebook blew up after the game, and even professional journalists knee-jerk reacted to his performance postgame.

Eric Wilbur of the Boston Globe penned one the most ignorant, idiotic columns that may have ever been written about a player’s performance.

Wilbur wrote, esstentially in a message for Brady himself, “You blew this Super Bowl. You denied your coach No. 4. You let down your teammates.”

Last time we checked, 22 men are on the field at one time. No one man can do everything. Brady doesn’t make tackles, block or catch the football.

If he’s to blame for something, it’s this: Without his play, the Patriots never would have reached the Super Bowl at all.