Football
The Californian, seven-time Super Bowl winner, makes his farewell official at the age of 44, after spending 22 unforgettable seasons in the elite
Now yes. After initially casting doubt on the scoop advanced last Saturday by ESPN, Tom Brady made his retirement from American football official on Tuesday with a statement that closes the legend of the best quarterback in history. «I have always believed that American football is an ‘all in’. If there is not a 100% competitive commitment you will not be successful, and success is what I love most about this sport. There is a physical, mental and emotional challenge every day that has allowed me to maximize my potential. And I have given my best in the last 22 years. There are no shortcuts on the road to success on the field or in life. This is hard for me to write, but here goes: I’m not going to have that competitive commitment anymore. I have loved my career in the NFL, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention, “said the athlete in a message broadcast through his social networks.
After spending 22 seasons in the elite, the Californian closes, at 44 years old, an unparalleled career that has made him one of the greatest myths in American sport. It is enough to give a fact to summarize his myth: he has won the Vince Lombardi trophy seven times, which recognizes the NFL champion, when the two most awarded franchises in history, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Englad Patriots, have six victories in the Super Bowl each, and the last one conquered all of them from the hand of the quarterback born in San Mateo.
The rumor had been circulating for weeks, because Brady had already dropped his desire to spend more time with the family he has formed with the Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen. «We never know what will happen in the future, there is what happened with Kobe Bryant, a great friend. You think you’ll live forever and it’s not, you think you’ll play forever and it’s not. The days that I have left I want them to be worth it whatever I do, I want to see my children grow up, there is nothing left but to enjoy the moment you have. Over the years I have learned that this sport is very important to me, it matters too much to me, but now I have children and they need me more than sport,” Brady said on January 26, coinciding with the second anniversary of his death. of Kobe Bryant.
Thus ends the story of one of the great American heroes, who grew up dreaming of emulating Joe Montana, the legendary quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers who triumphed in the eighties of the last century and formed a lethal duo with receiver Jerry Rice.
However, few could have predicted his success when he was selected in the sixth round of the 2000 draft with number 199, after spending four years in college defending the jersey of the Michigan Wolverines. The New England Patriots, who at that time commanded Drew Bledsoe on the grid and on whose bench Bill Belichick had just landed as head coach, bet on his services and changed the history of the Massachusetts franchise and of the NFL itself.
Brady spent his first season on the bench, but in the following season an injury to Bledsoe gave him the keys to starting and from then on he became the undisputed leader of the Patriots, whom he led to victory in six Super Bowls: 2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017 and 2019.
In the retina there are feats like the one he starred in 2017, when he commanded the incredible comeback at NRG Stadium against the Atlanta Falcons, who went into the break winning 21-3 and ended up succumbing in extra time after an epic game that was resolved with a touchdown by running back James White in overtime.
an american hero
That Super Bowl confirmed Brady as the best quarterback of all time, surpassing with his five titles the four that his idolized Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw had achieved. But he would still have time to lift the Vince Lombardi trophy again with the Patriots, since two years later he defeated the Los Angeles Rams in the final held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Hence, the stupor was maximum when Brady and the Patriots chose to end their fruitful relationship at the end of the 2019-20 campaign. The Massachusetts franchise embarked on a failed rebuild, trusting the direction of its attack to Cam Newton, which failed as Brady headed to sunny Florida and took charge of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who hadn’t won the Super Bowl since 2002.
He put himself in the hands of Bruce Arians, head coach of the Buccaneers, and brought out of retirement tight end Rob Gronkowski, his partner in misdeeds on the Patriots. With both as main partners, and in a season marked by the pandemic, Brady rose into the stratosphere of the sport by fastening his seventh Super Bowl, after the Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of Patrick Mahomes, his intended heir, in Raymond James Stadium in Florida. Things, however, didn’t go so well this year as the Buccaneers lost to the Rams in the Divisional Round and kissed their chances of defending the title goodbye.
That was the last game for Tom Brady, the only one who can boast of seven NFL titles, of being the quarterback with the most passing yards in history (84,520) and that in his last season as a professional he set another record, that of passes completed in a course (485). Just a handful of records for a record collector: he’s also the only man to win the Super Bowl in three different decades; the oldest to do so, at 43 years, 6 months and 5 days, as well as the one who has delivered the most touchdown passes (624).
Brady leaves it accordingly, at the top. Neither the physicist nor the rivals withdraw him. He only does it his desire to offer his family what he stole from him to give free rein to his great passion: quality time for his wife and his three children. The NFL will never be the same without GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).