Tom Brady once emailed a close friend to claim: “I’ve got another 7 or 8 years. He has 2. That’s the final chapter. Game on.”
At the time, 2014, the quarterback was perhaps the only soul who truly believed he would reach 45 years of age while still competing in the NFL, often labelling it his ‘long-term goal’. The ‘final chapter’ Brady referred to above was his iconic rivalry with Peyton Manning, who essentially retired a Super Bowl champion with the Denver Broncos by proxy given how broken his body was at that stage.
Today, Manning is 46 while Brady celebrates his 45th birthday. Manning is a television analyst while Brady remains at the top of the sport, one year removed from his most recent championship win. The final chapter of their storied rivalry is certainly closed, but the remarkable point is how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star has written a whole anthology after closing the book on Manning.
