The Football Player of the Year: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Refereed to “The Greatest Player of All Time” After His Super Bowl Finals
I am retiring for good. I was going to record it and let you guys know first, but when I woke up this morning, I knew I had to let you know first.
During his long career, the three-time league MVP has broken almost every passing record, including regular season passing yards (89,214) and passing touchdowns (649). He is the most wins leader in the history of the NFL.
Some members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization were informed around 6 a.m. ET Wednesday of Brady’s decision to retire, a team spokesperson told CNN.
“Greatest of All Time. There was no question or debate. It’s been an honor and a privilege,” JJ Watt – one of the best defensive players of all time – tweeted Wednesday.
Brady, who was due to be a free agent in the off season, didn’t look like his unflappable self either with errors and miscommunication creeping into the offense.
Brady has been named to the Pro Bowl on 15 occasions and won the NFL’s comeback player of the year in 2009 after returning from a torn ACL suffered in the season opener of the previous season.
Addressing his family, friends, teammates and competitors, Brady added, “Thank you guys for allowing me to live my absolute dream. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
In this year’s playoffs, four of the five quarterbacks who played in the league’s conference championships are in their 20s, and Brady might have noticed that if he was seeking signs that the game was passing him by.
Brady took his winning ways with him when he left New England for Tampa Bay after 20 seasons, bringing home a Super Bowl title in his first year with the Buccaneers. The Rams pipped the Buccaneers on a field goal in the waning minutes of the regular season to win the title.
When he met Randy Harden: From Little Rock to Super Bowls – His first encounter with the NFL and his first experience with the New England Patriots
After 22 years, it was time for him to call it quits after he said he would be retiring this time for good.
In fact, as a four-year-old, a young Brady was in attendance for one of the most memorable moments in NFL history, when Joe Montana threw “The Catch” to Dwight Clark in the 1981 NFC Championship Game against the Dallas Cowboys.
However, when he arrived in Michigan, it wasn’t plain sailing for Brady. He was nowhere near starting for the team, and such was his frustration, he sought out Greg Harden who was assistant athletic director at the school.
The following year, despite sharing time with Drew Henson early in the season, he eventually won the job outright, earning himself the nickname “Comeback Kid” due to some – what would become trademark – late fight backs in games.
Despite posting a 20-5 record at Michigan in his time as a starter, as well as victories in the 1999 Citrus Bowl and the 2000 Orange Bowl, Brady wasn’t a highly sought-after prospect coming into the 2000 NFL Draft.
While he had attributes teams liked, there were others scouts deemed a knock against him. The unflattering photo was taken in the months before the draft.
“I still have the image of Tom Brady coming down the old Foxboro stadium steps with that pizza box under his arm, a skinny beanpole, and when he introduced himself to me and said: ‘Hi, Mr. Kraft,’ he was about to say who he was, but I said: ‘I know who you are, you’re Tom Brady. You’re our sixth-round draft choice according to CBS Boston, according to the owner of the company.
He started on the bench, while Bledsoe started on the field in the opener. Bledsoe was injured during the Week 2 clash with the Jets. Brady replaced him for the last series of the game.
He was the mastermind behind the Patriots’ run to Super Bowl XXXVI where, against the explosive St. Louis Rams – nicknamed ‘the Greatest Show on Turf’ – a late Adam Vinatieri field goal gave New England their first ever Super Bowl title.
As his backup between 2009-11, Brian Hoyer, once said during a weather-enforced stop in Rochester, New York Brady showcased a hidden talent to his Patriots teammates.
“The whole team is there. It becomes a beer-chugging contest. You have linemen, Julian Edelman, they all think they are going to win,” Hoyer told ESPN.
Someone said that Tom was great at chugging a beer. We were able to get him to do it because we pushed him into doing it. He pours the beer out of it, and you couldn’t have done it quicker. It was incredible. And he slams the mug on the table and puts both fists in the air.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/sport/tom-brady-retirement-nfl-legacy-spt-intl/index.html
What does Tom Brady do when he retires? A look at some of the highs and lows of the American football player’s retirement
Here is a list of the records Brady holds, such as the most career victories, career wins, career passing attempts and career touchdown passes.
The lows, like the Super Bowl setbacks to the New York Giants, pale insignificance when compared to the other highs.
In an interview with 60 Minutes in 2005, a 27-year-old Brady told correspondent Steve Kroft that retirement was the thing that scared him the most, saying, “Not that it’s easy to work, not that’s easy to show up every day and do the job, but you’re focused. You have a goal and you are trying to accomplish it.
80,000 people don’t scream your name when that’s done. What will it be? There are a lot of people who go to the moon and come back depressed because they don’t have anything else to look forward to.