Just like all of the other old people who reside in the Tampa-St. Pete area, Tom Brady came to Florida to retire.
Except, unlike his fellow fogeys, when Brady came to the Sunshine State, he somehow accomplished his most monumental feat — and then retired (reportedly).
Before the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) purportedly put himself out to pasture on Saturday after 22 seasons in the NFL, Brady did something only a real, live GOAT could do: He wove his magical wool and dressed up the traditionally tattered and threadbare Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a championship coat of cashmere.
Although Brady’s retirement was reported by ESPN’s Jeff Darlington and Adam Schefter, longtime Tampa Bay Times Bucs reporter Rick Stroud tweeted, “Tom Brady has called Bucs GM Jason Licht to inform him has he has NOT made up his mind about retiring or playing in 2022.”
Brady’s agent, Don Yee, also released a statement to address the retirement rumors.
“I understand the advance speculation about Tom’s future,” Yee said. “Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what’s being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy. He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well as anybody, so that should be soon.”
Brady’s call to Licht and Yee’s statement were probably just Brady and his camp trying to stop the barrage of career eulogies that will undoubtedly upstage Sunday’s NFL’s conference-championship games, but it’s no use. I certainly trust the reporting of Schefter, the NFL’s pre-eminent insider, and Darlington, a former Orlando Sentinel colleague.
And so, let the career tributes begin. If they are premature, then so be it. Brady, after all, is so great, he deserves two rounds of recognition.
Although Brady’s legacy will mostly be tied to the six Super Bowl rings he won with the Bill Belichick-coached New England Patriots, is there any doubt Brady’s greatest accomplishment came as a Florida snowbird?
Full disclosure, I was skeptical when Brady chose to leave the dominant, dynastic Patriots for the perennially pathetic Bucs. I thought putting Brady on the Bucs was like hanging the Mona Lisa in Room 207 of the Red Roof Inn. Little did I know that Brady would immediately turn the Red Roof Inn into the Louvre.
As I wrote during Tompa Bay’s championship run last season: “Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed in Florida in 1513 fruitlessly searching for the Fountain of Youth, but it was Tom Brady who has miraculously found it. At a time when most 43-year-old multimillionaire quarterbacks would be retired in Tampa Bay soaking up the suds and sun on Clearwater Beach, Brady has come to Tampa Bay — and in one historic, euphoric voyage — led the beleaguered, bedraggled Buccaneers into the Super Bowl.”
Not only did Ponce de LeBrady lead the Buccaneers into the Super Bowl, he did it in the most unbelievable, inconceivable way imaginable. He signed with the Bucs in the middle of a pandemic and had to integrate himself into a new team, learn a new offense and get accustomed to a new coach. And he had to do all of that with no minicamps, no preseason games and a COVID-curtailed training camp.
And then he led the Bucs on the road during the playoffs, beating the great Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, then the great Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers before dispensing of the great Patrick Mahomes and the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
“This trophy,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians said during the postgame celebration after the Bucs beat the Chiefs, “is because of the belief Tom gave everybody in this organization that this could be done. It only took one man.”
This is the immense influence and impact of Brady. As much as he accomplished during his brilliant career and as many records as he has set (most passing yardage, most touchdown passes, most Lombardi Trophies), I still don’t think he gets enough credit or is appreciated nearly enough for what he did at such an advanced age.
Brady was the third-leading passer in the league last season when he became the oldest player in history to ever play in a Super Bowl. This season, he led the league in passing and touchdowns and threw for a career-best 5,316 yards.
How freaking remarkable is it that the best quarterback in history is arguably still — at age 44! — the best quarterback of the present?
Brady will go down as not only the greatest GOAT in NFL history but the greatest GOAT in the modern era of American team sports. (Note to readers: Bill Russell is not of the modern era.)
With apologies to the New England Patriots and their fans, Brady’s greatest accomplishment came as a Floridian.
This is where he won his seventh championship to surpass Michael Jordan’s six titles.
This is where he took the beleaguered Bucs to a Super Bowl title while playing with a torn MCL.
This is where he solidified his status as the king of the GOATs.
This is where, five centuries after Ponce de Leon, Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. finally discovered the elusive Fountain of Youth.
