Hanging It Up
The greatest of all time said in a brief but emotional Twitter video that he’s calling it quits
Tom Brady had retired — again.
“Good morning, guys. I’ll get to the point right away: I’m retiring, for good,” the Hall of Fame-bound quarterback said in a brief video posted to his Twitter account Wednesday morning.
“I won’t be long-winded. You only get one super-emotional retirement essay, and I used mine up last year,” he continued, a reference to his retirement announcement after last year’s season, one he quickly withdrew to return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Buccaneers did make the playoffs for their third year in a row under Brady, but they underperformed, and the 45-going-on-46-year-old field captain has apparently decided he’s now done for good.
Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time by any metric. He holds just about every significant NFL passing record, including career completions, yards, and touchdowns. He was selected to a record 15 Pro Bowls and won three MVP awards, including one when he was 40. Brady’s greatness was defined by his success in the postseason, in particular his record seven Super Bowl titles. He won his first in 2002 as the replacement for the injured Drew Bledsoe with the New England Patriots, and his last in 2001, in his first year with the Buccaneers. The Bucs finished a mediocre 8-9 in Brady’s final season, one which was complicated by his divorce from Gisele Bündchen, before getting blown out by the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs.
Many speculated Brady would be back for the 2023 season with a new team, but it wasn’t to be. “Thank you so much to every single one of you that supported me: my family, my friends, my teammates, my competitors — I could go on forever,” he said in the video posted Wednesday, fighting back tears. “Thank you guys for allowing me to live my absolute dream. I wouldn’t change a thing. I love you all.”