Tom Brady retires

Trlicek's Whip

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Definitely think Gisele pushed this more than ever but he had nothing left to prove.
Not willing to label Gisele "Yoko Ono" here. It's clear they had discussions every season.

I suspect higher on the list would be that Tampa Bay's Super Bowl window was always small, but likely far smaller in 2022 without enough money or resources to give him a puncher's chance. I'm happy he's not out there getting wrecked while a medium talented team hovers around .500. (And Tampa now was where the Pats were two years ago, when they couldn't reboot or turn the page and get their next cheap legacy QB if TB was still there).

I recall cringe final seasons from Top 10 QB's (Favre, both Mannings, Marino), or seasons where a QB's saddled with a terrible team around them (often due to their own longevity/cap hit like Roethlisberger or Brees) and am glad Brady didn't go out with a sad-as-fuck whimper.
 

88 MVP

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It kind of bummed me out when Brady’s last season with the Pats ended with the 4th quarter pick-six at home.

Short of going out with another Super Bowl win, it would be hard to go out on a better note — leading the league in yards and touchdowns, and his final pass was an absolute dime to bring his team all the way back in a playoff game.
 

Archer1979

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Congratulations to him and thanks for one the greatest runs in all of sports. In the 21st Century, he never played a game where his team was not in playoff contention. Immortal career.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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I love the fact the Bucs beat guys are in denial
Those fans will never forget that championship.

But he was always just a rental. They borrowed him. It was hard to see him in another jersey for two years but he is ours again today.
 

ilol@u

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Was 10 when my parents took me to a Supervowl party where I first watched the Rams/Patriots Super Bowl.
Had so many phases throughout my life and he was always a consistent.
married, have kids now, and damn, just very sad. What a great player. Thanks for changing my life.
 

slamminsammya

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He could have kept playing at a high level. Good for him to go out on his terms and I hope he enjoys the time with his family.

There was a viral tweet a few weeks ago that was something like "What is the biggest statistical outlier in sports history" and a few of the top answers were Bonds' 1.400 OPS seasons, DiMaggio's 56-game streak, stuff like that where players put up stats that were a standard deviation or five from normal. But I am pretty sure the answer is Tom Brady's career -- particularly the years from age 38+ which literally no one else has even come close or likely ever will come close to matching. The players who were the closest, Brees and Manning, were in the same ballpark as Tom most years during their primes, but by the end were basically surviving on their wits, ability to read defenses and their accuracy but couldn't throw with any power like they once could. But Tom was whipping balls into tight coverages when he was 4 years older than the age when those guys could barely hit an out route and basically had to hang it up. It boggles the mind and we were lucky to witness it, and be fans of the team he played for during most of that time.
Obviously injuries involve a tremendous amount of luck, but Brady had a preternatural sense for self preservation. He was not only fantastic at avoiding sacks but he rarely tried to force throws in situations that tend to lead to injuries.
 
It kind of bummed me out when Brady’s last season with the Pats ended with the 4th quarter pick-six at home.

Short of going out with another Super Bowl win, it would be hard to go out on a better note — leading the league in yards and touchdowns, and his final pass was an absolute dime to bring his team all the way back in a playoff game.
His final pass was actually the nine-and-a-half-yard completion to Cameron Brate, setting up Fournette's fourth-down TD run to tie the game.
 

joe dokes

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He wanted to outlast Belichick. But then he realized that BB, like Keith Richards, will go on forever.

My older was 5 and younger 2 during his first SB. Both now reasonably productive college graduates. I was 40, now 60. Other side of the see-saw. It's 100 years and the blink of an eye at the same time.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Is it even possible for Brady to sign a one day contract if he is still under contract for one more year with TB? How does that work?
That doesn’t seem to be a thing in football but I wouldn’t be surprised if Kraft didn’t figure out a way to do it that got some compensation to the Bucs if it could be done without cap consequence. I would guess people will be asking Miguel about this and he will almost certainly have a definitive answer if he doesn’t yet.
 

mauidano

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What an incredible career and life lived. A stunningly gorgeous super model wife, great family, more money than he can conceive of, and the best years of his life yet to come.
 

joe dokes

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Those fans will never forget that championship.

But he was always just a rental. They borrowed him. It was hard to see him in another jersey for two years but he is ours again today.
Exactly. There are exactly zero people who call themselves TB fans feeling wistful.
 

SoxJox

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He's the best professional sports player in history.
I love TB. And not to distract, but I believe someone like The Great One may have something to say.

From wiki:
Gretzky is the leading goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history, and has more assists in his career than any other player scored total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.
 

johnmd20

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I love TB. And not to distract, but I believe someone like The Great One may have something to say.

From wiki:
Gretzky is the leading goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history, and has more assists in his career than any other player scored total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.
Not even close.
 

snowmanny

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Arians is still working on his coverage to make sure Kupp doesn’t get free. He will get to this later.

Brady knocked off Bledsoe and the Brady 6 and Aikman and eventually Peyton and Rodgers along the way and then took out Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and Jim Brown and finally ended up in the Jordan, Ruth, Gretzky conversation and probably really did beat them all. Incomprehensible. What fucking fun that was.
 

ZMart100

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Is it even possible for Brady to sign a one day contract if he is still under contract for one more year with TB? How does that work?
His salary this year guarantees on Feb 10. If he's serious about retiring I'd guess that he will do the Bucs a solid and renegotiate for non-guaranteed salary with the understanding he will be cut/retire Jun 2 to spread the dead money. If he cares about retiring a Pat, which I doubt, he would ask to be cut then. Otherwise, he will just file the retirement paperwork.
 

snowmanny

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I love TB. And not to distract, but I believe someone like The Great One may have something to say.

From wiki:
Gretzky is the leading goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history, and has more assists in his career than any other player scored total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.
I had no idea he was good.
 

Ralphwiggum

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I think the one-day contract thing is silly. He will get the appropriate retirement ceremony in Foxboro in time, and it will be epic. Nobody is ever going to think of Brady as a Buc, any more than people think of Montana as a Chief.

Edit: or what he said.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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I think that stuff is silly. He's retiring. His Patriot-ness is as assured as sunrise.
Yep. It would be fun to see him with the jersey on one more time but I think it doesn’t matter and he probably is ready to do non football stuff.

There is not going to be a shortage of Tom Patriots moments over the next several years I don’t think.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Arians is still working on his coverage to make sure Kupp doesn’t get free. He will get to this later.

Brady knocked off Bledsoe and the Brady 6 and Aikman and eventually Peyton and Rodgers along the way and then took out Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and Jim Brown and finally ended up in the Jordan, Ruth, Gretzky conversation and probably really did beat them all. Incomprehensible. What fucking fun that was.
In terms of winning the only guy ahead of him is bill russell-11 titles in 13 years is even more than Brady could do. Plus for good measure in college too
 

djbayko

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Many years from now, people younger than me are going to look at his stats, see that he led the league in passing yards and TDs in his final year and think “What the fuck?”

This is kind of like Jordan (his second retirement), except Tom is 44.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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I think that stuff is silly. He's retiring. His Patriot-ness is as assured as sunrise.
It is silly. I am a grown ass adult and I actually want this outcome like I am 10 years old. I tend to think that's kind of neat but YRMV.

Tom Brady means a lot to a lot of people. That isn't silly. Its just true
 

Hoya81

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I’d actually love to see him suit up for the Pro Bowl for the first time since 2005.
 

djbayko

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SoxJox

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Not even close.
We'll agree to disagree. BTW, I do think TB IS the greatest professional sportsman, but you cannot deny Gretzky's near similar longevity (20 vs 22 years) and performance. Also similar to TB, TGO did things - multiple times over - that no-one else in the NHL has ever repeated or come close to. BUT, he was a Stanley Cup champion only 4 times.