After 23 memorable NFL seasons, Tom Brady has retired. Again. The 7x super bowl winner posted a short but emotional video saying that he will step away from football for good. 

After heavy speculation that Brady would leave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to stop and play quarterback for one more team, he didn’t. It is hard not to be amazed by Brady’s achievements in his long career. These include 3x winner of the MVP, 5x Super Bowl MVP, 15x Pro Bowler and of course 7 Super Bowl wins, which is more than any franchise in the NFL.  He also holds most of the great NFL records a Quarterback can have including most career wins, most career passing completions, most career passing touchdowns and most career passing yards. 

When many people think of Brady, they think of his great years in New England with the Patriots. Yet, Tom Brady was chosen  in the 6th round pick of the 2000’s NFL draft. In Brady’s rookie season, he was deep into the depth chart and made just 1 appearance. In Brady’s second year, starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe went down making Brady the starting quarterback and leading them to the team”s first franchise Super Bowl victory. 

In the next 18 years as starting quarterback for the patriots, Brady led the team to 17 divisional titles, 13 AFC championship games and 9 super Bowl appearances, winning 6 of them. Brady then joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and signed a two-year contract at the age of 42. Brady quickly found success in Tampa  and in 2021 , Brady and the Buccaneers crushed the Chiefs to win Brady’s 7th and last super bowl. In 2023, hard times fell on Tampa amid an aging Brady. The team who was exceptionally bad and didn’t have much of an offense got smoked in the wild card of the NFL playoffs.  

Over 2 decades of fantastic football was called to an end as an emotional Brady thanked his team, family, and many others via instagram. Many people my age like myself haven’t watched football on Sunday’s without TB12 tearing up his opponents. Without Brady the league will be different.  Brady signed off to end a great QB era in the NFL with talents  like Ben Rothlisberger, Payton Manning, Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers and soon Aaron Rodgers. Flashy and athletic freaks like Burrow, Mahomes, Herbert and others have now taken over the league for better or worse. Brady is set to join Fox Broadcast next year and will almost certainly be a first ballot hall of famer in 2028.