FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Look into the locker of Tom Brady and you’ll see the same assortment of football gear — shoulder pads, cleats, shirts, socks, gloves, helmet — and hygiene products that you would in the locker of any other New England Patriot.

But then you notice the two framed photos of his sons, Jack and Benjamin, dressed in No. 12 Patriots jerseys. And you also see a wooden chair with a wicker seat with “Benjamin” inscribed across the top of it.

These are not your typical NFL player locker items.

Then again, Brady is not your typical NFL player. The Patriots quarterback is a likely choice for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award following a season in which he led a young, maturing team to a surprising 14-2 record, best in the league. Most preseason polls had the Patriots winning 10 games at best, but Brady responded with perhaps his best season — yeah, even better than his 50-touchdown pass season in 2007 — and his teammates responded with their best efforts.

He had an NFL-best 111.0 quarterback rating, threw for 36 touchdowns and just four interceptions — setting an NFL record for most consecutive passes without an interception (335) — a streak that’s still going.

He has received almost weekly testimonials from opposing coaches and players as they prepare to play the Patriots.

“He’s playing great football right now, but he’s been playing great football for so long now,” said Chicago Coach Lovie Smith before Brady picked his Bears apart (27 for 40, 369 yards, two touchdowns) in a 36-7 victory in a snowstorm. “When has he not played great football? Right now he is going through a streak where we’re looking for other words to describe it. He’s a Hall of Fame quarterback, and this is what they do.”

Mike McCarthy, coach of the Green Bay Packers, compared Brady to Hall of Famer Joe Montana.

“Joe was probably the most fundamental quarterback that I had the opportunity to be around,” said McCarthy before Brady threw for 163 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-27 victory over the Packers. “I would say definitely Tom is in that category.”

Beyond his play on the field, Brady is a poster boy for the NFL: successful, well-mannered, articulate, popular.

His marriage to Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen has elevated him to celebrity status, with paparazzi hanging out in Boston’s Back Bay trying to get photos of Brady, Bundchen and his two sons.

Yet Brady, 33, doesn’t think he has done anything special this year. Nor does he think he is much different from the rest of us.

“We all have careers, we all have families,” he said when asked how he balances his celebrity, career and family life. “I mean, I show up and come to work, at something I love to do. And when work’s over, I spend time with my family.

“It ends up being pretty simple.”

There are drawbacks to his fame. He no longer goes out much, other than to team or charity events or to play with his children.

New Year’s Eve was spent, he said, having a quiet dinner out with his parents, his sisters and his wife and children.

“I don’t do much,” he said. “I really don’t. I just enjoy being with my family.”

Last Tuesday he had a movie system installed in his Back Bay home. Now, he said, “all I have to do is find time to watch my movies.”

Time, you see, is very precious to Brady. While everyone offers a reason for his success — his attention to detail, his fundamentals, an inner drive fueled by the fact he was the 199th player selected in the 2000 draft and that he always had to prove himself at Michigan to keep his starting job — they all agree that few players prepare as hard as Brady. Patriots Coach Bill Belichick, who took a lot of heat in 2001 when he kept Brady as the starter after Drew Bledsoe returned from the injury that sidelined him and gave Brady his starting job, has repeatedly said that Brady’s preparation is second-to-none.

“He’s a nerd,” said wide receiver Deion Branch, laughing. “The guy studies so much. The thing is, we’re in the room studying with him, going over a lot of things — positions, where he wants us to be when he’s getting ready to throw the ball. I think guys are, obviously, making sure they’re doing what he’s asking them to do and the outcome will be pretty good.”

Branch, who returned to the Patriots in an Oct. 12 trade with Seattle and caught 48 passes for five touchdowns the rest of the way, gave another example of how Brady works with his receivers.

“We work so hard,” he said. “There may be one play that we work on all day in practice, when we get to our individual drills. We want to make sure we’re on the same page with that one play — just him having the comfort level, knowing I’ll be there, and him knowing I’ll catch the ball.”

Offensive left tackle Matt Light has played with Brady longer than anyone on the roster (excluding the injured Kevin Faulk, who was in New England before Brady). He is surprised by neither Brady’s accomplishments nor the fact he makes things look so easy.

“He has a tendency for doing that,” said Light. “Same ol’, same ol’.”

Brady will be the first to admit that his offensive line has a lot to do with his success. He was sacked 25 times this year, but often had time to scan the field for his second, third or even fourth receivers.

Opposing coaches say his ability to dictate his pass protection at the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped is unmatched.

“It almost looks like they’re getting a couple of plays at the line of scrimmage and Tom is getting them into the right play,” said Dolphins Coach Tony Sparano. “The thing I’ve always been fascinated with with him is his ability to get them in the right protection. He’s done a tremendous job that way throughout his career and since I’ve been watching him.

“He doesn’t seem to miss a beat there it’s like having a coordinator out there in the huddle.”

Brady’s streak of passes without an interception was the exclamation point on his season. Certainly luck is involved — he’s had several potential interceptions dropped — but Chad Henne, the Dolphins quarterback, knows how difficult it is to do what he has done.

“It’s definitely hard to do in this league with a lot of good players on the other side of the ball, and there could be some mishaps on the offensive side where a guy falls down or anything like that,” he said. “But it’s pretty remarkable how he sets (the bar) that high. And it’s a good thing for us young quarterbacks to look at and protect the ball and try to get to that point.”

Nick Caserio, the Patriots’ director of player personnel, said Brady deserves most, if not all, of the credit for his success this season.

“He makes good decisions with the football,” he said. “I think one of the most important things as a quarterback is you want to try to make good decisions with the football. You have to make them quickly. They’re going to be under duress.

“But he prepares as diligently as anybody. He practices the same way. He wants to be perfect.”

While Brady has appeared to be more vocal this year, he doesn’t see it that way.

“I’m always trying to be pretty vocal and enthusiastic,” he said. “I think it comes more natural to me than other people. Maybe when the pressure’s on a little bit more, I tend to be a little more vocal. And we’ve had a lot of big games this year.”

As captain of a young team, he doesn’t feel he needs to say much. He said he just needs to set an example for others to follow.

“The most important thing for me to do is my job,” he said. “Once I feel I’m pretty comfortable in doing that, the leadership role my teammates elected me as captain and it’s something that I’m very proud of and something that I take very seriously.

“I just try to be the best teammate that I can be for them.”

And along the way, he became the best quarterback in the league.

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:

mlowe@pressherald.com