By The Greatest of All Time has taken his final snap. From the beach early Wednesday morning, Tom Brady recorded a video posted on his social media accounts announcing his retirement.
With apologies to the likes of Jerry Rice, Ray Lewis, Lawrence Taylor, Joe Montana and others, Brady is the greatest football player to ever wear a uniform.
The stats, rings, numbers and trophies make that crystal clear. Brady was the leader of seven teams that won the Super Bowl, winning Super Bowl MVP honors five times.
He is the NFL’s all-time leader in career passing yards during the regular season (89,214), career TD passes in the regular season (649), career passing yards in the playoffs (13,400), TD passes in the postseason (88), fourth-quarter comebacks (46), Pro-Bowl selections (15), starts (333), wins (251), completions (7,753) and attempts (12,050).
When Brady’s teams were listed as underdogs, they cashed tickets at a 51-13 against-the-spread clip. He went 213-157-11 ATS (58%) for his career.
Brady orchestrated the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, leading the Patriots back from a 28-3 deficit to beat Atlanta 34-28 in overtime at NRG Stadium in Houston on Feb. 5 of 2017. New England trailed the Falcons by 25 points with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Brady’s 466 passing yards that night still stands as a Super Bowl record.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, Brady informed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of his retirement at 6:00 a.m. this morning.
After 20 years with the New England Patriots, Brady added three more outstanding seasons to his resume in Tampa. In Year 1, the Bucs drilled Kansas City 31-9 at Super Bowl LV. They won another postseason game over Philadelphia last year before losing a heartbreaker at home to the Rams, who won last year’s Super Bowl.
In Brady’s final season, he was third in the NFL in passing yards with 4,694. However, it was a frustrating year with the team limping to an 8-9 regular-season record. Nevertheless, the Bucs won the NFC South in a historically bad year for the division, but they got throttled at home by Dallas in the playoffs.
Brady has already signed a 10-year, $375 million contract to work as a TV analyst for Fox Sports.
