Tom Brady after a 22 year NFL career has retired. Brady finishes with three MVP awards and seven Super Bowl titles. Brady also holds the all time passing and touchdown records with 624 TD’s and 84,520 yards respectively.
Brady will finish his career as the best QB to ever play the position period. There is currently no debate, even for the early greatness of Patrick Mahomes he is nowhere close to competing with Tom Brady legacy wise early in his career.
There is a real argument to be made that Brady is the best and most accomplished athlete the world has ever seen. He certainly holds that title among all four North American sports.
This is where the hard news recap of Brady wraps up and where my editorializing begins. Tom Brady has been one of the most important sports figures in my entire life.
Thirteen-year-old Eric, hated and I mean hated Tom Brady. Brady was the opposition for the Broncos every year during the Peyton Manning years and flat out a better Quarterback than Manning. That leads one to do things like mother eff the living hell out of a guy, and that’s largely what I did for about the first five years of my football fandom.
There has never been, and probably will never be a player I have hated more than Tom Brady from 2013-2018. A level of hatred and obsession that would be defined by many as unhealthy, but that’s what you do as a young sports fan, you pick your villains and you hate, you hate until you have no hate left.
Because the thing about villains is this, after a while hate turns into begrudging respect. Right after the Super Bowl against the Seahawks and the year after Peyton Manning retired it became harder to hate Brady. Here is a 39 year old whose coming back from down 28-3 to win a Super Bowl against one of the better offenses in the decade in Kyle Shannahan’s Falcons offense.
At some point if you can’t beat em, join em. Brady’s last year in New England was not at all pretty, but it was one of the most impressive feats Tom ever pulled off despite losing in the divisional round. That Pats team lacked pieces and Brady battled them to a two seed.
Then the most miraculous point of Tom Brady’s career hit, as forty something he went to Tampa, was surrounded by weapons and he turned back the clock. This year especially, I would argue was one of the best of Brady’s career at 44.
His arm never fell off, his game never fell off. Considering the career trajectories of guys like Big Ben, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning this was shocking. We may never again see a QB play at that level at that age. To put it simply, all passers are ultimately beaten by father time, Brady never was.
He walked away from the game as the best to ever play the position and as the best QB in the entirety of the league. He was one Bucs broken coverage away from returning to a conference title game for the tenth time. Brady went 9-1 in the divisional round over his career, his one loss was last week.
Brady’s legacy was best summed up by one of my favorite analysts and Patriots fan Gregg Rosenthal.
Tom Brady was one of the best QBs of all time before he turned 36 in 2014.
Since then: 6 seasons as a top-3 QB and 4 more Super Bowl titles.
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) January 29, 2022
Brady played long enough and well enough that not one, but two generations of football fans will remember his prime and tell their kids, he was the greatest QB of all time. Montana has faded away, I’m not sure Brady ever will. I’ll tell my kids about him, the man I hated the most in football turned into one of my greatest loves. I will miss Tom Brady.