Deflategate move over, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is sick -- only days before Super Bowl

By RYAN GORMAN

The air is slowly hissing out of the Deflategate scandal as both the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks largely focus their attention on Super Bowl XLIX – but the game's biggest star may not be 100 percent for the big game.

Tom Brady has a cold.

The sure-fire first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback is set to play in his sixth Super Bowl but admitted this week to reporters gathered in Phoenix that he has been under the weather for days, according to Sports Illustrated.

The Patriots signal caller's children and supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen first became ill before passing the nasty bug on to him, he explained.

"Yeah, I've had it for four or five days," Brady said. "My kids got sick, and then my wife's pretty sick right now, so I brought it, unfortunately, to Phoenix.

"But I'll be fine. I'll be good," he said, while wiping sweat from his forehead and noticeably battling congestion throughout his media appearance.

Brady's disclosure came only days away from what could be his fourth Super Bowl victory, which would tie him with Pittsburgh Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw for most rings. Bradshaw is in the Football Hall of Fame.

"It's been lingering," Brady told reporters, according to Boston television station WBZ. "I'm just trying to get some rest, and a lot of garlic -- an old remedy. So I'm trying everything I can."

The three-time champ has lost the last two Super Bowls in which he's played (2008 and 2012) to quarterback Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

Assuming Touchdown Tommy's health checks out by Sunday, at least two prominent prognosticators have picked Brady to top the Seahawks and their "Legion of Boom" defense, which many feel ranks among the greatest of all-time.

A simulation run by EA Sports' Madden 2015 video game shows the Patriots winning 28-24 after a furious second half comeback.

The Madden video game franchise is 8-3 in picking the big game since 2004, including correctly picking the Giants' upset win over the Patriots in the 2012 Super Bowl.

Microsoft's Cortana has mercurial coach Bill Belichick and the Pats topping coach Pete Carroll's defending champion Seahawks 24-23 despite the firm's headquarters being only about a half hour away from Seattle.

Cortana's history is not as vaunted as the Madden video games, but the digital assistant has gone 8-2 in this year's playoffs – it also went 15-1 during last year's soccer World Cup.

Vegas has the Patriots as one point favorites over the Seahawks.