MOBILE, Ala. — Tom Brady’s voice shook Wednesday morning when he said “I wouldn’t change a thing” as he announced his retirement “for good.”
It was difficult in that moment not to wonder about Brady the human being, about the personal cost of his determination to play until age 45, about whether he actually would change something if he could go back one calendar year to his first fleeting retirement from football.
When the emotion clears, though, what will be remembered about Brady’s time in Tampa Bay is not this disappointing whimper of a final season and slow trudge to the finish, but the manner in which Brady’s persistence to escape New England somehow elevated a six-time Super Bowl winner’s on-field legacy to new heights.
