Tom Brady’s original plan was to play until he was 45 years old. It looks like he’ll pull up seven months short of his goal.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Sunday the legendary quarterback is set to step away from the game after 22 seasons, seven Super Bowl wins, and one of the most illustrious careers in all of sports. If true, it will close the books on one of the most unlikely runs to glory the NFL has ever seen.
Every team in the league passed on the chance to draft Brady in 2000; some did it six straight times. The gangly Michigan quarterback fell all the way to the 199th pick of that spring’s NFL Draft before being snapped up by the New England Patriots as a backup and possible successor to entrenched starter Drew Bledsoe. He sat for a year before Bledsoe’s Week 2 chest injury threw the young quarterback into the spotlight for a franchise that had, before 2001, been defined by a general malaise and lack of success.
