How Good Was Tom Brady Actually?

the greatest player in sports and the quarterback is the most impactful position. He is the best football player to ever play football ever. I stand down.

He is the goat and the boat and everything else. I've been asked that question for many years. Tom is the best.

They have completed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history led by the greatest quarterback. Tom Brady, Super Bowl champion for the seventh time. Tom Brady holds just about every major quarterback record.

He played in 10 Super Bowls, more than 28 entire franchises, and he won seven. That's as many as Joe Montana, Payton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers combined. Even at 44 years old, he led the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns.

And when the pressure was the highest, Brady always delivered. He has more game-winning drives and fourth quarter comebacks than any quarterback in history. And no one has dominated the postseason like him.

But despite his resume, for much of his career, Brady had more haters than any player ever. Some claimed he was just a product of the Patriots system. Can't argue the fact that he's getting to do what he's doing with the greatest coach who ever lived.

Nothing more than a checkown merchant and a game manager. Is it fair to say at this point the great TB12 is just a game manager? Yep.

In fact, you could go back, Pete, before this point and say he's a game manager. Others couldn't stand how many controversial calls went his way and the scandals Brady and the Patriots always seemed to be involved in. So, how good was Tom Brady actually?

And is he really the greatest of all time? Let's go. Well, to find out, let's go back to Hunero Sarah High School in the early '9s when Brady almost gave up football entirely.

See, Tom was a standout baseball player, a left-handed power hitter with a cannon for an arm. Tommy's throwing ability. He threw both balls great.

He's one of the best catchers I've had at throwing throwing the ball. But when it came to football, Brady wasn't exactly a star. He rode the bench for his first two years at Hunaro Sera, serving as backup to a quarterback who wouldn't even play college football.

And when he finally got his shot as a junior, he wasn't the most athletic guy on the field or even the best quarterback in his conference. I didn't know how to put the pads on in my pants when I tried out for freshman football. I went on the field and I was like, I'm going to get killed out here, you know, and my freshman year, I didn't even play.

I was the backup quarterback on a team that went 0 and8. But what he did have was an insane work ethic. He obsessed over film.

He threw every single day and worked with a private coach to improve his footwork and mechanics. Uh, I'd be watching films of other teams, but they're watching themselves and critiquing themselves. And then I'm sure they bring it home.

And, you know, Tom Senior is doing it. Every Sunday we go to his house for lunch. me, him, and the other receivers.

His mom would make us, you know, sandwiches. We'd sit down and analyze the film. And by his senior year, he put up solid numbers, throwing for 2,121 yards and 20 touchdowns.

But he still wasn't a can'tmiss prospect. But on the baseball field, he was a force. His bat sent balls soaring.

His arm fired rockets from behind the plate, and every scout in the region took notice. He was dominant. So much so that the Montreal Expose drafted him straight out of high school to be a catcher.

A guaranteed contract, MLB money, and a secure future was right there for the taking. The choice was easy. But Brady wasn't interested because football was his obsession, his purpose.

But there was just one problem. He didn't have a single D1 offer. I got offered a scholarship to UCLA.

And then they turned me away at the last minute cuz another kid signed before me. And I really wanted to go to USC. That was probably my first choice, but they didn't want me either.

They signed another kid who was one of the top recruits on the West Coast. So Brady took matters into his own hands, sending out highlight tapes to over 100 colleges, most of which didn't even bother responding until Michigan decided to take a chance on him. But even then, he was far from their top recruit.

He arrived as the seventh quarterback on the depth chart. And if he thought high school was a challenge, college was about to become a different beast entirely. For 2 years, he barely touched the field, watching from the sidelines as Brian Greasie led the Wolverines to a national championship.

But instead of getting frustrated and transferring, Brady worked harder. In my freshman year, I red shirted, never played, barely practiced, but I learned a lot. He did everything he could to get better.

From watching hours of film to working with a sports psychologist to improve his mindset, and by his junior year, Brady earned the starting job, but Michigan still wasn't sold on him yet. The coaches constantly rotated him with the freshman Drw Henson, a top recruit who was supposed to be the future. But despite this lack of trust, Brady delivered.

He sat down right in front of my desk and he said, "Coach, I'm not going to leave, and I'm going to prove to you that I'm the best quarterback. " He was trainable, coachable, and hungry. This guy was hungry to be the best.

In his two years as a Michigan starter, he went 20 and five, led 10 game-winning drives, and capped off his college career with a clutch Orange Bowl win against Alabama, throwing for 369 yards and four touchdowns in an overtime thriller. But after all that work he put in to prove himself in Ann Arbor, pro scouts still weren't impressed. Brady wasn't fast.

His arm strength was average. And simply put, he didn't really have any traits that would project him as a viable NFL quarterback. Poor build, skinny, lacks great physical stature and strength.

Lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush. Lacks a really strong arm, can't drive the ball downfield, does not throw a really tight spiral. system type player who can get exposed if forced to add lip and gets knocked down easily.

So when draft day came, Brady waited and waited and waited. Six quarterbacks were taken ahead of him. Some teams didn't even have him on their draft board.

Then it happened in the sixth round with the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft. The New England Patriots took a chance on the skinny kid who no one believed would ever be anything more than a backup. He looked me like a laser, eye to eye, and he said, "That's right, and I'm the best decision this organization has ever made.

" Brady walked into training camp as the fourth string quarterback behind Drw Bledsoe and two other guys who would never start an NFL game. I remember calling my agent and I said, "I think I want to buy a house. " This is two weeks into training camp and he's like, "Are you nuts?

You know, why don't you make the team first? " I'm like, "Yeah, I'm going to make the team. Don't worry about that.

" By the end of his rookie season, he worked his way up to second string, but he still wasn't expected to play anytime soon. Bledsoe was the franchise guy, fresh off signing a 10-year, $13 million contract. Drw probably liked sort of the challenge of making the Patriots and NFL football relevant in New England.

And it really all started with him. While Brady was just happy to have secured his spot as a backup until in week two of the 2001 season, everything changed. Bledsoe took a brutal hit from Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, suffering internal bleeding that nearly killed him.

And just like that, the Patriots had no choice but to turn to their unknown backup, Tom Brady. You think about the situation and and I know visiting Drw in the hospital, I mean, he'd love to be out here playing and it's really my job to step in and pick up where, you know, where he left off. At first, Brady wasn't flashy.

He wasn't making any jaw-dropping plays, but what he did do was manage the game perfectly. He protected the football, made smart decisions, and most importantly, he won. After starting 0 and2, the Patriots went 11 and three with Brady under center, and his confidence kept growing.

He led comeback wins, showed ice cold composure in crunch time, and by the end of the year, the Patriots had gone from an afterthought to a Super Bowl contender. But when the playoffs arrived, there was drama. See, Drw Bledsoe was healthy again, and he was the guy the franchise just paid big money to.

And thankfully for Tom, Bill Bich didn't care, and he stuck with Brady. But Brady's first playoff game would be a rough one. A gritty match up with the Raiders in a blizzard.

With just under 2 minutes left, the Patriots trailed 13-10, and their season was slipping away. On what would be their final drive in regulation, Brady dropped back to pass, scanning the field for an open receiver. Then boom, Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson came flying off the edge on a blitz and drilled Brady, knocking the ball loose.

The Raiders jumped on it and just like that, the game was over. Or so they thought. The officials huddled together, reviewing the play.

Then came the announcement that changed NFL history forever. The quarterback's arm was going forward. It is an incomplete pain.

It's the worst call in the history of sports. This was clearly a fumble. Brady had pulled the ball back toward his body.

He wasn't throwing it. Thank you for correctly ruling this on the field. I appreciate you getting the call right.

But thanks to an obscure rule called the tuck rule, the refs determined that Brady's motion was still part of a pass attempt, even if he wasn't actually passing. Look at the left throwing. I was going to throw it and he hit me as I was throwing.

Just throw you sticking to it, right? Darn right. Darn right.

It was a gift and Brady did not waste it. He marched New England down the field, setting up a 45-yd field goal to send the game to overtime, where Brady led another drive, putting the Patriots in range for one more field goal to win the game. Then, after taking down the Steelers in the AFC Championship, Brady led the Patriots into Super Bowl 36 as heavy underdogs against Curt Warner's high-powered Rams offense, the greatest show on turf.

And most young quarterbacks would have folded under that kind of pressure. But not Brady. He played mistakefree football.

And with 130 left in the game, he led a clutch game-winning drive that set up another walk-off field goal. The Patriots had pulled off the upset, and Brady at the time was the youngest quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl. It's just uh dream come true.

Dram come true. It looked like the Patriots had found a true diamond in the rough in their sixth round QB until reality hit. The Patriots came out red-hot, starting the next season 3-0 with Brady lighting up the scoreboard.

But then the losses piled up. They got blown out by the Chargers, let the Chiefs drop 38 points on them, then lost a tough battle to Brett Favre and the Packers. While Brady finished the season leading the NFL with 28 touchdown passes, his 14 interceptions were a leading cause in the Patriots finishing 9 and seven and missing the playoffs entirely.

All of a sudden, the narrative shifted. Tom Brady isn't the future. The Patriots should have kept Drw Bledsoe, whom they had traded to Buffalo the offseason prior.

And the New England Patriots are officially Brady's bunch. Drw Bledsoe is shuffling off to Buffalo. Brady was nothing more than a one season wonder.

That kind of gets me fired up cuz I'm thinking, you know, what the hell do these people know? Then to add insult to injury to start the 2003 season, the Patriots took an absolute beatdown from none other than the Drw Bledsoe Bills. Brady threw four interceptions in the game as New England got embarrassed 31 to nothing.

But then something clicked. By the end of the regular season, New England had gone 14-2. Then in the final game of the year, they got revenge on the Bills with a 31 to nothing blowout of their own, securing the number one seed in the AFC and entered the playoffs on a 12game win streak.

And Brady wasn't done. In the divisional round, they faced the Titans in one of the coldest games in NFL history. Windchills hit -10°, but that didn't stop Brady.

He threw a touchdown pass to Bethl Johnson and led a crucial fourth quarter drive, setting up a field goal to win 1714. Then came the AFC Championship game, Tom Brady versus Payton Manning. Brady had already beaten Manning in the regular season, but this was different.

The stakes were higher and Manning was playing at an MVP level, but the Patriots defense destroyed him, picking him off four times as the Patriots won 24-14, sending Brady to his second Super Bowl in three years. Carolina did everything they can to to go out and try to knock the crap out of us. So, it's going to be a tough battle.

Facing the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 38, Brady started hot, throwing two touchdowns in the first half, but Carolina fought back, tying it up 2929. But their big mistake was letting Brady have the ball with a minute eight left on the clock, and everyone in the stadium knew what was coming next. Tom marched the Patriots down the field, hitting Dion Branch for a huge gain and setting up another game-winning field goal from 41 yds.

looks good. He had done it again. Brady finished with 354 yards and three touchdowns, earning his second Super Bowl MVP.

The Patriots had officially arrived as the team to beat in the NFL. In 2004, they started the season off 6-0, setting an NFL record 21 straight wins before Big Ben and the Steelers broke the streak. And the Patriots finished the season 14-2 for a second straight year.

But this time, there was one key difference. running back Cory Dylan, who rushed for a franchise record 1,635 yards, taking some of the load off Brady. First up in the playoffs, a rematch with Pton Manning and the Colts.

Brady didn't do much, but he didn't have to because the defense completely shut down Manning again, holding the Colts top rank offense to just three points while Cory Dylan ran for 144 yards and New England cruised to a 20-3 win. Next up, Pittsburgh. The Steelers had crushed the Patriots earlier in the season, breaking their win streak, and rookie Ben Rothllessberger hadn't lost a game all year, but this was the playoffs where Brady proved time and time again that he was made for the moment.

On the first drive, Brady threw a 60-yard bomb to Dion Branch for a touchdown. Then, right before halftime, he launched another deep ball, hitting Branch again to put the Patriots up 24-3, and the Steelers never recovered. Brady finished with 207 yards and two touchdowns and the Patriots won 41-27, sending them back to the Super Bowl for the second straight year.

Their opponent was the Philadelphia Eagles whose star receiver Terrell Owens was playing on a fractured leg. Roy grabbed me by my shoulder, pulled me down, and when I when I went down, I heard a pop. So surely that would slow him down, right?

Wrong. Philly came out swinging and Owens torched the Patriots defense for 122 yards, keeping the game tight in the first half. But in the second half, Brady took control.

The Patriots pulled ahead, sealing a 24-21 victory and securing their third Super Bowl in four years. I'm just lucky, I think, to have the opportunity to be on three Super Bowl winning teams. Just like that, New England wasn't just a great team anymore.

They were a dynasty. But even with all the Patriots success, not everyone was convinced Tom Brady was a superstar. It's true, he had been surrounded by talent for his entire career.

But all of a sudden in 2005, he'd have a chance to quiet the naysayers because star corner Ty Law was gone. Defensive leader Teddy Brussi suffered a stroke that put him out for half the year. And injuries plagued the Patriots, including Cory Dylan, who was dominant the year before.

With no running game and a struggling defense, the fate of the season came down to one thing. whether or not Tom Brady could carry the team. And with all eyes on him, Brady had his best season yet, throwing for a league leading 4,110 passing yards while adding 26 touchdowns.

The Patriots finished the season 10 and six, and once again, we're in the playoffs. In the wild card round, Brady did what he always did, win. It was his 10th straight playoff win, the longest streak in NFL history.

But in the divisional round, it all came crashing down as the Denver Broncos won 2713, ending Brady his first ever playoff loss. And that loss gave the critics the fuel they needed as the Brady being carried by his team narrative was now louder than ever. And things would not get any easier for Brady the next year.

Star wide receiver Dion Branch, the Super Bowl 39 MVP, was traded. Wide receiver David Given, Brady's most reliable red zone target left in free agency. Receivers Bethl Johnson, Tim Dwight, and tight end Daniel Graham all gone.

By week one, Brady's receiving core looked unrecognizable. His top wide outs were Rashe Caldwell and Jabar Gaffne. Two guys who would struggle to be wide receiver threes on most teams.

For the first time in his career, Brady didn't have any elite weapons. But once again, he put the team on his back, passing for 3,529 yards, 24 touchdowns, and leading the Patriots to a 12-4 record. Due to the lack of receiver talent, Brady had to spread the ball everywhere.

In fact, his top receiver only had 760 yards. In the playoffs, Brady and the Pats took down the Jets, then went on to face NFL MVP Leenian Tomlinson and the powerhouse 14-2 San Diego Chargers. The Chargers defense sacked Brady four times and with eight minutes left, New England was down 2113 with their season hanging by a thread.

But Brady did what he does best. On fourth and five, with the game on the line, he fired a laser to Rashe Caldwell for a clutch first down. And a few plays later, he hit Caldwell again for a touchdown, then converted the game-tying two-point conversion.

And after a Chargers turnover, Brady set up the game-winning field goal, pulling off a 24-21 stunner. The Patriots had no business winning that game, but Brady's uncanny ability to be clutch in the toughest moments gave him the edge once again. I was walking off the field and I said to Teddy, I go, "Man, that was not easy.

" And he says to me, "They're never they never are, buddy. They never are. " In the AFC Championship, Brady would face off against the man he had owned in the playoffs up to this point, Pton Manning.

And once again, New England dominated the first half, jumping out to a 21-3 lead. But this time, Manning and the Colts stormed back, taking the lead late in the fourth quarter, Brady had one last chance. Down 3834 with a minute left.

This was his moment, but he came up short, throwing an interception on the final drive to seal the game. However, one thing was clear. Brady had overachieved with a roster that had no business making the AFC title game.

You know, it's frustrating when it ends like this for all of us because I think the expectations are always a little bit higher. But I'm proud of the the competitiveness that we showed. The critics were forced to eat their words and the loss lit a fire in New England.

They'd seen firsthand what happened when Brady didn't have weapons. So that off season, the Patriots made a decision that would change NFL history forever. They went out and got one of the greatest receivers of all time, Randy Moss.

And they weren't done there. They signed slot receiver Wes Welker, then added Dante Stalworth, and drafted a young tight end, Ben Watson. Suddenly, Brady had the best supporting cast of his career, and it paid off big time.

Brady wasn't just great in 2007. He was unstoppable. He threw for 4,86 passing yards, an NFL record at the time, 50 touchdowns, and won MVP while leading the Patriots to the first 16-0 regular season in history.

But it wasn't just about the wins. It was about how they won. New England's offense was a machine, steamrolling opponents by an average margin of nearly 20 points per game.

They led the league in scoring with a staggering 589 points, the most ever at the time, and Brady and Randy Moss rewrote the record books with Moss hauling in an NFL record 23 touchdown receptions. It wasn't just the greatest regular season ever. It was a level of dominance the NFL had never seen before.

And the scary part, they weren't done yet. In the divisional round against the Jags, Brady completed 26 of 28 passes in a clean win before throwing three interceptions in a not so clean win against the Chargers. The Patriots were now 18-0, and they were one win away from history.

And this Super Bowl matchup was the undefeated Patriots versus the underwhelming fifth seed Giants. On paper, it was a mismatch. New England had set records all year.

Brady had just won MVP. The Patriots were 14-point favorites. However, the game didn't go as planned for the Pats.

The Giants knew they couldn't keep up in a shootout, so they made it a slugfest. But still, New England had a 14-10 lead late in the fourth quarter. And then one of the craziest plays of all time happened.

On third and five, Eli Manning was nearly sacked, but somehow escaped and launched a deep pass. Airs it out down the field. It is caught by Tyrie.

Moments later, the Giants scored, taking a 1714 lead. Brady had one last shot with under a minute left, but he was unable to come through and just like that, the perfect season was ruined. So, Brady left that game with unfinished business, and he was determined to come back better than ever next season.

Usually on the on the better side of those three-point wins, but uh I just have to regroup and come back and try to make stronger next year. But his dreams for the '08 season quickly became a nightmare because in week one, Brady tore his ACL and MCL. This game is bigger than any player that's ever played this game.

And you realize how fortunate you are to be a part of it when you can't participate. So the last two games he played were a massive upset loss in the Super Bowl and a game where he suffered a seasonending injury. It was a new low.

And now the question was whether or not he'd come back the same player. Well, we soon found out because in 2009, Brady played solid despite the missed time, even winning comeback player of the year. But things were just off in New England.

The Patriots finished 10-6, a win worse than the previous year with Matt Castle at QB. And after getting blown out in the playoffs, some wondered if Tom Brady's time in New England was coming to an end. He was now 33 years old, and 2010 was a contract year for him.

But pressure always brought the best out of Brady, and he shocked the NFL. He kicked off the season with a bang, throwing for 258 yards and three touchdowns, and just never slowed down from there, finishing the year with a league leading 36 touchdowns to just four interceptions, the lowest in the NFL. He looked dominant and took care of the football better than ever as he led the league with a 111 passer rating.

Brady led the Patriots to a 14-2 record and captured his second NFL MVP award. Despite losing in the divisional round to the Jets, one thing was clear. Tom Brady's time in New England was far from finished, and that was all but confirmed when the Patriots gave him a record-breaking 4-year, $72 million contract extension.

And then the next season, everything clicked again. Brady was on fire, throwing for a ridiculous 5,235 yards, becoming one of the few quarterbacks in history to cross the 5,000y mark. He led the Patriots to a 13-3 record, torching defenses all season and setting up another Super Bowl appearance.

And this time he had a shot at redemption against Eli Manning and the New York Giants. The Patriots looked like they were in control, holding a 17-9 lead in the fourth quarter, but then it started slipping away. The Giants cut the lead to 1715.

And with just over 3 minutes left, they mounted a game-winning drive. A crucial 38-yd catch by Mario Manningham put New York in position. And just like in 2007, the Patriots defense couldn't get the stop they needed.

Let him score. Got to let him score. New England let the Giants score a late touchdown to get the ball back with under a minute left, giving Brady one final shot at a miracle.

But his Hail Mary fell incomplete in the end zone. And just like that, the Giants had stunned the Pats again. And then just a year later, the Patriots found themselves in a similar situation with a 13-7 lead at halftime in the AFC Championship against the Ravens.

But Joe Flacco completely took over the second half as Baltimore outscored New England 21 to nothing in the final two quarters. All of a sudden, Brady went from one of the most clutch players of all time to an aging quarterback who some doubted could get the job done anymore. And after another season of playoff disappointment, the Patriots dynasty was on the verge of collapse.

Number one receiver Wes Welker left in free agency. Tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested and out of the NFL and Rob Gronowski was recovering from multiple surgeries. So once again, the fate of the Patriots was set on the shoulders of their 36-year-old quarterback in 2013.

And once again, Tom Brady delivered. He led New England to another AFC Championship where they did fall short. But Brady proved that players around him really didn't matter.

He was always going to find a way to win games. Still, when the 2014 season rolled around, the fact of the matter was that Brady hadn't won a Super Bowl in nearly a decade. And surely, Father Time was going to catch up with him at some point.

Then the start of the season brought disaster. In week four, the Patriots got humiliated, suffering a 4114 blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Brady looked shaky.

The offense was out of sync, and the team fell to two and two. The Jinx and the Armor were showing and the media pounced. We saw a weak team.

The New Patriots, let's face it, they're not good anymore. But they bounced back. Grank was healthy again, and Brady somehow looked like he was just reaching his prime.

The Patriots rattled off seven straight wins in end of the year 12-4. Brady finished with 4,1009 yards, 33 touchdowns, and only nine interceptions. Then in the playoffs, he took things to the next level.

In the divisional round against the Ravens, the Patriots trailed 2814 in the third quarter. But Brady led an incredible comeback, throwing for 367 yards and three touchdowns, pushing New England to a 3531 victory. Then in the AFC Championship, the Pats steamrolled the Colts 457.

But then controversy struck. the deflategate cheating scandal that rocked the NFL. Did they deflate footballs during their championship game to gain a strategic advantage?

After the game, reports surfaced that the Patriots footballs were underinflated, making it easier for the players to throw and catch. At no time was there any intent whatsoever to try to compromise the integrity of the game or to gain an advantage. What seemed like a minor equipment issue quickly spiraled into one of the biggest scandals in NFL history known as deflategate.

At halftime, officials found that 11 of the 12 Patriots footballs were below the legal air pressure limit. But as the investigation went underway, Brady was busy playing in the Super Bowl against one of the most dominant defenses ever, the Legion of Boom. And for three quarters, Seattle controlled the game, taking a 24-14 lead.

But when the Patriots needed him most, Brady delivered one of the greatest fourth quarters in Super Bowl history, leading back-to- back touchdown drives. Seattle still had over 2 minutes left and they marched down the field all the way to the oneyd line and then the unthinkable. Pass is intercepted at the goal line.

The Patriots were Super Bowl champs and Tom Brady had captured his fourth Super Bowl ring, but not without drama. Because in 2015, Tom Brady was supposed to serve a suspension for the deflate gate scandal, but it got overturned. And the NFL's appeal won't stop him from playing in their first regular season game.

And Brady didn't waste his opportunity, leading the Patriots to a dominant 10-0 start. He threw for 4,700 yards, 36 touchdowns, and finished second in MVP voting, proving that at age 38, he was still among the NFL's elite quarterbacks. However, injuries to key players like Julian Edelman and Rob Gronowski led the Patriots to fall short in the AFC Championship against the Broncos.

But even worse, deflate gate came back to light after the NFL's $20 million investigation found that it was more probable than not that the Patriot staff intentionally deflated the balls and that Brady was generally aware. So, he was forced to serve a 4-ame suspension. A federal appeals court has ruled that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady must serve a 4-ame suspension which ended up being a mistake for the rest of the league because Brady and the Patriots used the suspension as motivation taking on an US against the world mindset.

Even without him for the first month of the season, the Patriots still went 3-1 behind backup quarterbacks Jimmy Garopppolo and Jacobe Brassette. But once Brady returned, he played some of the best football of his career, throwing for 3,554 yards, 28 touchdowns, and just two interceptions in 12 games. The Patriots dominated their way to a 14-2 record, earning the AFC's number one seed.

Then, after steamrolling the Texans in the divisional round and blowing out the Steelers in the AFC Championship game, they were back in the Super Bowl, facing off against the high-powered Falcons. And that's when history happened because Super Bowl 51 was supposed to be a blowout. Atlanta had jumped out to a 28-3 lead late in the third quarter and the Patriots had no answer.

But Tom Brady refused to go out like that. He picked apart the Falcons defense throwing for a Super Bowl record 466 yds and led the Pats to 31 unanswered points, capping it off with a game-winning touchdown in overtime. White, he's in.

Patriots win the Super Bowl. Brady had just pulled off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, earning his fifth ring, his fourth Super Bowl MVP, and cementing his spot amongst the greatest to ever play. First Super Bowl I ever covered was January 18th of 1976.

All these games I've seen since then, I've never seen anything like that game. It would have been easy for Brady to call it a career then and there. He was approaching 40 years old and really had nothing more to prove.

Plus, behind the scenes, a power struggle was brewing. Bill Bichc was reportedly ready to move on from Brady, favoring his handpicked successor, Jimmy Garopppolo. But team owner Robert Craft stepped in, refusing to trade the team's greatest player ever, which was a decision that didn't sit well with the legendary coach.

Despite the tension, it provided Brady an entirely new form of motivation for the 2017 season. He led the league with 4577 passing yards, threw 32 touchdowns, and won his third MVP award, proving that father time still hadn't caught up with him. The Patriots finished 13-3 and cruised through the AFC playoffs with Brady delivering a clutch fourth quarter comeback against the Jags in the AFC Championship despite playing with an injured hand.

In Super Bowl 52, Brady put on a historic performance, beating his previous record by throwing for a Super Bowl record 505 yards and three touchdowns against the Philadelphia Eagles. But his heroics weren't enough, and the Patriots fell short, losing 4133 after a late game strip sack by Brandon Graham that sealed the win for the Eagles. In 2018, New England wasn't as dominant as in years past, and the rest of the NFL rejoiced because it seemed as though their dynasty was finally fading.

Yet, the Patriots still found themselves in the playoffs. But would Brady be able to elevate his game when it mattered most? Well, if you made it this far, I think you know the answer to that question, cuz Brady got in that zone again, torching the Chargers in the divisional round, then outdueling Patrick Mahomes and the high-powered Chiefs in an overtime thriller to win the AFC Championship.

The Super Bowl was an ugly defensive duel, but Brady did enough to lead the Patriots to a 13-3 win over the Rams for ring number six. This also marked the beginning of the end for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots because things were just off the next year. The Patriots still managed to finish the 2019 season 12 and four, but they weren't nearly as dominant as years past and the tension between Bill Bich and Brady was reaching a boiling point.

So, after a wildcard round defeat at the hands of the Tennessee Titans, Brady made a decision that would shock the sports world. He was moving on, but not from football, from the Patriots. He was taking his talents to Tampa Bay.

And while it may seem like a gamble to give the keys to your franchise to a 43-year-old quarterback, this is Tom Brady we're talking about. We're going to have to work as hard as we can to see what we can become. And he quickly turned to the Buccaneers from a struggling team into Super Bowl contenders, leading them to an 11 and5 regular season record.

In the playoffs, he was calm and composed as ever, taking down the Washington Football Team, New Orleans Saints, and Green Bay Packers on route to Super Bowl 55, where Brady and the Bucks dominated the Kansas City Chiefs, winning 319. And Brady was named Super Bowl MVP, marking his seventh ring, who now has more rings than any NFL franchise. He's got seven in 10 tries.

And proving that he wasn't just a product of Bill Bich's system. Over the next two seasons, Brady played more great football. In 2021, at 44 years old, he even surpassed the 5,000 yard mark for the second time in his career and threw 43 touchdowns.

But the Bucks fell short in the playoffs in each of his last two years, which finally led to Brady hanging up his cleats. I'll get to the point right away. I'm retiring for good.

But the question is, how good was Tom Brady actually? And while all his accolades with the Patriots more than support his claim as the GOAT, it's really his time with the Bucks that gave us the answer to that question. He won a Super Bowl at 43 years old and threw for over 5,000 yards at 44.

That's because Brady was never the flashiest or the most physically gifted quarterback. He dominated with his mind, his precision, his unrelenting pursuit of greatness, and a clutch gene that we'll likely never see again. He was an incredible leader who spearheaded the greatest dynasty in history, then went and turned another team into a Super Bowl contender overnight.

He has all the records, sure, 89,214 career passing yards, 649 touchdown passes, 15 Pro Bowl appearances to name a few. And of course, he's the greatest winner ever with 35 playoff wins, 14 of which were game-winning drives, seven Super Bowl rings, and five Super Bowl MVPs. But it's the moments that truly make Tom Brady the greatest to ever touch a football.

He dominated the NFL for over two decades and gave fans enough memories to last a lifetime. If you enjoyed this video, stick with Blitz. Subscribe and check out some of our other content right here.