I thought it might be nice to give him a little time to change his mind before penning this edition.
Brady, 45, has more Super Bowl rings than any player in history, but also lost three more times, twice to Eli Manning. He won three league MVP awards, was a three-time All Pro, and holds the records for most wins, yards and touchdowns by a quarterback in league history.
Unlike Brett Favre, who was the original touchdown leader before being supplanted by both Peyton Manning and Drew Brees until Brady took the crown, Brady did not claim the interception record along the way. Favre played until he was 40, Manning was 38 and Brees 41. All three had to retire due to injury history. Brady only missed one season (2008) in his career, then rebounded in 2009 to win the Comeback Player of the Year award, getting the Patriots to the playoffs.
His last two seasons in Tampa Bay have been anything but memorable. After winning the Super Bowl in his first season after departing New England, Brady’s lasting memory will be crying to the officials because Aaron Donald caused him to get a little cut on his chin last year, and the Dallas Cowboys hanging 31 points in his final game a few weeks ago in the Wild Card round.
At least four of his seven championships are marred in thick controversy. Spygate, Deflategate and the Tuck Rule are all directly related to Brady. After suffering the first losing season of his career, it was time to walk away.
The only problem is that the past two years have now put Brady into the same category of quarterbacks hanging on too long, along with Favre and Joe Montana.
The numbers Brady put up will not be eclipsed in our lifetime. Remember that we said the same thing about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record in the NBA, until LeBron James broke it a few nights ago. Alexander Ovechkin is less than two years away from taking down Wayne Gretzky’s goal scoring record in the NHL. Pete Rose’s hit record might be the most sacred one still left in baseball.
Taking 2023 off, Brady is scheduled to start working with Fox Sports in 2024 to the tune of $375 million over 10 years. No one expects Brady to be as analytical and entertaining as Tony Romo is for CBS. I think we would all prefer he be closer to Cris Collinsworth with NBC than Kirk Herbsteit with ESPN.
Speaking of the four-letter network, I recall seeing conversations the morning of Brady’s announcement discussing that he went through a divorce, and is now a single father.
The question I would like everyone to back and answer is why Brady is divorced and a single father.
If you guessed that he walked away at the urging of now ex-wife Giselle Bundchen, only to go back to the NFL 40 days later this time last year, you would be correct. No one pays any attention anymore that he broke up with actress Bridgette Moynahan while she was pregnant with their son John in 2007, to begin dating Bundchen.
Brady is unquestionably the greatest of this era. However, you could never call him the greatest ever, as the NFL became more pass-happy in the last 25 years. Running backs when Montana played were a decade-long investment. Today you would be doing backflips to get more than six years of consistent production from your top back.
If he was not on an "isolation retreat," I would ask if Brady could do us one last favor on his way out…call Aaron Rodgers.
-JC24