This past week has been a tough one in the NFL due to the fact that two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game have retired: two-time Super Bowl champion Ben Roethlisberger and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady. In this post, I'm going to talk about the second guy--the greatest to ever pick up a pigskin.
Tom Brady's career has been a real Cinderella story, starting way back when he was the 199th pick in the sixth round of the 200 NFL draft. Most people who are selected that far down either spend their entire careers on the practice squad or are out of the league shortly after getting drafted. Brady was the exact opposite.
There have been very few athletes who have completely altered the way a game has been played and Brady is one of them. Some of the others are Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Tiger Woods, and Muhammad Ali. Brady put every single bit of effort and energy into the game he loved and it paid off. Well, that really depends on whether or not you think 7 Super Bowls wins, 10 Super Bowl appearances, and 15 pro bowls is something special. In my opinion, these stats speak for themselves. He was and will always be the greatest football player in the history of the entire world.
Classic Brady: in 2017 Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons, the Pats were down 21-3 at the half. The players in the locker room should have been sulking and thinking of different ways to climb out the hole in the second half but instead, they were talking about how Brady was on their side and even though they were down by 18 points, they were confident they could recover. Final score at the end of the game: 34-28, Pats win. Note: the largest Super Bowl comeback (ever) prior to this game was when the Pats overcame a 10-point deficit to beat the Seattle Seahawks in 2015, again, with Brady at the helm.
Brady came into the league as the backup for Drew Bledsoe in September 2001. Bledsoe ended up getting hurt late in one game and Brady got the nod to be the next quarterback in New England. I'm assuming that we all know what happened after that. He was the starter for the next two decades and won six Super Bowls (2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017, 2019) for The New England Patriots, who have to be regarded as the greatest franchise in the history of sports. Without Tom Brady, the Patriots wouldn't have been great, and the NFL wouldn't have even closely been the same.
On March 20, 2020, Tom Brady opened a new door for the first time in his illustrious career. He packed up his luggage and moved to Tampa Bay to try and build a new dynasty with the Buccaneers. I'm a Patriots fan so this was a brutal event for me--having the greatest player who ever lived, leave you to go someplace else. It felt personal.
Although I hated his decision, I still had a tremendous amount of respect for Tom no matter where he played. It turns out he made the right decision. He won his seventh Super Bowl with his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his first year with the franchise! That's crazy. This is just another reason on why he's the best and most influential athlete ever.
There has never been an athlete with a better resume than Tom Brady. He dominated the league against all odds and showed that if a person has an extremely hard work ethic, anything is possible.
We love you Tom. Thank you for everything that you have done for us and the world of sports.
コメント