NFL
Tom Brady “officially” retires via his Instagram
Nothing is official until it’s Instagram official? That's the case for Brady, whose retirement was reported then un-reported before making it Instagram-official.
Tom Brady said on Monday that he would make the decision on his retirement when the time was right. Apparently on today, Tuesday, the time is right.
He posted on his Instagram that he is ready to focus on "other things".
Before the quarterback announced it himself, there were reports over the weekend that it was already official. It looked like he might be pulling a Brett Favre for a second there, as more reports came out almost immediately that he was maybe, possibly NOT retiring after all. His father denied the claims and his agent issued a statement saying that unless the source himself says so, it's not official.
Tom Brady himself spoke about it on a podcast on Monday saying that he would make the decision when it felt right for him. He expressed regret that the media reports distracted from the weekend AFC and NFC matchups, which is perhaps the real reason he was waiting to officially announce it.
His words were these: "It's just, when I know, I'll know, and when I don't know, I don't know, and I'm not going to race to some conclusion about that."
And yet, his conclusion came just a day later.
Brady fails to mention the Patriots in his announcement
Interestingly, the 44-year old failed to even mention the team he spent most of his career with, the New England Patriots. He played for the Patriots for 20 years and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, only two. Yet he had loads of praise to send out to the Buccaneers organization and nothing to say about the Patriots organization, Robert Kraft or Bill Belichick.
Before Brady left the Patriots, there were rumors that he and Belichick were having issues. Notably, that Belichick had a problem with Brady's personal trainer, Alex Guerrero, and stripped him of some of his privileges, which eventually led to Brady leaving the team in 2020.
Perhaps a second post is coming, but even still, it is strange that he chose not to even make mention of the team where he built his legacy.
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Tom Brady's legacy
Brady's retirement announcement comes just over a week after he and the Bucs lost to the Los Angeles Rams, a game in which he made one of his famous fourth quarter comebacks, but it just wasn't enough.
Tom Brady was, incredibly, the sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL draft, 199th overall by the New England Patriots. He spent his rookie season as the backup quarterback to Drew Bledsoe. It wasn't until Bledsoe was injured in 2001 that Brady was thrown into the starting position, and he never left it. He took the Patriots to their first Super Bowl ever in his second season, and was named Super Bowl MVP, the first of many to come.
For the next two decades, Brady took the Patriots to five more Super Bowl victories (out of nine appearances), 17 AFC East division titles, and 13 AFC Championship Games. He won three Super Bowl MVP awards and played in the Pro Bowl 15 times.
When he joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, he further sealed his status as the GOAT by taking them to a Super Bowl victory in just one season. That was Brady's seventh Super Bowl victory and his fifth Super Bowl MVP award. He surely would have liked to have had a last Super Bowl run this year before retiring, but instead, he ends his career with the loss to the Rams. I don't think that will matter much though. People will remember Tom Brady as the GOAT, who even at 44 years old, dominated the NFL.