Tom Brady is officially calling it a career. According to Jeff Darlington and Adam Schefter of ESPN, Brady is retiring from the NFL after 22 seasons. The news comes after CBS Sports reported that Brady was likely going to make his retirement announcement very soon.
Brady played his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots and led the team to nine Super Bowl appearances with six Super Bowl wins. In 2020, Brady signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and helped the team win its first championship since 2002. Brady has also won five Super Bowl MVP awards and three NFL MVP awards in his career. He played in his final game last weekend when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round of the playoffs. A few days after the game, Brady went to Instagram to send a message to his fans.
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“I always want to win, I think that’s pretty apparent by now, but that doesn’t mean I equate losing to failure, especially when you go out fighting the way we did,” Brady said. “There’s so much to appreciate in a season like this when you’re surrounded by a team that believes in each other, and plays for the people standing on either side of them. I’ll spare you the Man in the Arena quote, but that feeling is something that I promise I’ll never take for granted. To everyone that was a part of it this year, thank you. I love you all!”
Brady also spoke about retirement on the “I think as I’ve gotten older, I think the best part is, is football is extremely important in my life,” Brady said. “And it means a lot to me. And I care a lot about what we’re trying to accomplish as a team.”And I care a lot about my teammates. And the biggest difference now that I’m older is I have kids now, too, you know, and I care about them a lot as well. They’ve been my biggest supporters. My wife is my biggest supporter. It pains her to see me get hit out there. And she deserves what she needs from me as a husband and my kids deserve what they need from me as a dad.”
Brady leaves the game as not only the NFL as the league’s most decorated champion, but he also retires as the league’s all-time leader in passing yards (84,520), passing completions (7,263) and passing touchdowns (624). He’s been named to the Pro Bowl 15 times, the All-Pro Team six times. And he’s a member of the 2000s and 2010s All-Decade Team.
