When you talk about the greatest athletes of all time, there are specific names that we automatically associate with greatness—Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, and now Tom Brady.
Brady has been the GOAT for quite some time, but he cemented that status his last two years in Tampa.
Brady was just a skinny kid from Michigan in 1999 when he was selected in the sixth round by the New England Patriots.
By 2001, he had replaced Drew Bledsoe as the starting quarterback of the Patriots and was well on his way to laying the foundation of his career that would end with him being the greatest football player of all time.
Oh yeah. Brady also led the Patriots to an upset win over the heavily favored Rams in the Super Bowl.
What makes Brady the greatest athlete of all time? Let’s start with his desire to win. There were no lazy practice sessions for Tom Brady. “It’s just practice, man,” were words never uttered from the mouth of Tom Brady.
If Brady missed a pass in practice, he wanted to practice that same throw again and again until he got it right. He challenged his teammates to have good practice habits. Brady knew that how you practiced was also how you would perform on Sunday. He demanded that everyone pay attention to detail.
When the COVID pandemic swept the country, and the NFL facilities closed, Brady, a brand new teammate, organized a team practice at a high school field to familiarize himself with his new teammates and work on the timing with his receivers. That is leadership.
Brady also had this uncanny ability to raise the level of play of those around him to a championship level.
I don’t know of an athlete in any sport who could have accomplished what Brady did last season at the age of 44, winning a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Consider the obstacles that Brady had to overcome.
-Brady signed with a new team
-Had no OTA’s
-Had no mini-camps
-Did not have a training camp
-Had no preseason games
-Learned a brand new offense
-Won three playoff games on the road
-Won the Super Bowl in his home stadium.
Brady’s career spanned 22 seasons, and his accomplishments will stand in the record books for decades.
Brady won 243 games in his career. He was also a
-7 time Super Bowl champion
-3 time NFL MVP
-Six-time All-Pro
-A record of 35-12 in the playoffs
-17-7 in championship games.
-Brady retires as the all-time passing TD leader with 624.
-Brady retires as the NFL’s all-time passing yards leader with 84,520 yards.
-Brady also has the most career wins of any quarterback with 243.
Tom Brady came to Tampa at the age of 42. All he did was win 29 of 39 games, throw for an average of 300 yards per game, with 96 touchdown passes, win a Super Bowl, and a Super Bowl MVP.
Brady could well be this season’s MVP. We will find out on February 10th in a nationally televised NFL awards ceremony.
In 33 regular-season games with the Bucs, Brady is second in career touchdown passes with 83 and second in yards passing with 9,949.
Brady said he would retire “When I Don’t Suck.” Brady would have been 45 years of age at the beginning of the 2022 season. He could have started at quarterback for the Bucs and been one of the top five quarterbacks in the league.
Brady goes out on his terms and can still play the game at an elite level.
There has never been a player like him in the history of the NFL. There will never be a player in the future to match the heart of this champion and the competitive fires that burned within Tom Brady.
