After spending 22 years in the NFL, Tom Brady has retired from the game of football. Not many people last that long in the NFL, and especially not quarterbacks.
He spent the first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, where he’s won six Super Bowls and has won three regular-season MVPs. He spent his last two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, during that time he won a Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP, and he threw for nearly 10,000 passing yards and over 80 touchdown passes.
I can go on and on all day about everything he’s accomplished and how successful he was, but you get the point. He was arguably the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, and definitely the most accomplished by a landslide.
It was actually to my surprise, like many others, that he chose to retire. Despite being almost 45 years old, he was still playing at the top of his game. He is also one of the few players to play and win a Super Bowl in his forties.
I think this is good for the NFL though because more teams will now have a chance to compete and win championships. I personally don’t believe that anyone will surpass seven Super Bowl titles, because you need a lot of things to go your way to even win it one time.
There are some who would say that Tom Brady got lucky to win that many, and sometimes people do get by with luck. There have been some situations where he has gotten lucky to win.
The “tuck rule” back in 2001 for example. Brady’s arm was going forward and then the ball came out, but since he was meaning to throw it forward, it wasn’t a turnover. He won his first two Super Bowls because the Patriots kicker (Adam Vinatieri) made the game-winning walk-off field goal.
Some consider that to be good luck. What if he missed those kicks? Would he only have six or five rings? Who knows because it didn’t happen.
Fast forward to the 2007 season where the Patriots were 18-0 entering the Super Bowl. David Tyree, the wide receiver for the New York Giants catches the football on his helmet.
This sets up the touchdown to ruin the Patriots’ perfect season. Bad luck. If only he dropped that pass or New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning got sacked, maybe he would have eight rings.
Five years later on the same team, in slightly different circumstances, Wes Welker dropped a pass late in the fourth quarter that would have likely allowed the Patriots to sit on the lead. Bad luck. I am not trying to discredit Tom Brady for what he has done in his career, but at the same time, football is a team sport.
It takes a whole team to get the job done. Not just one guy. Tom Brady is still the greatest quarterback of all time, but even the great ones need help from those around them in order to succeed. But his team was always a threat to make the Super Bowl every year.
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