This time he really means it. Tom Brady got up early this morning, taped a message on his phone, and delivered his retirement announcement on Twitter. The greatest winner in NFL history, who holds every major regular season and playoff record for quarterbacks, officially retired from the NFL “For good,” as he put it in his message.
Adding that “he wouldn’t change a thing” about his career, Brady announced this decision precisely one year after he initially retired from the NFL last year. There were teams like the San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas Raiders, and Miami Dolphins who were interested in seeing if the GOAT would come to play another year or two for them, but they will have to go to Plan B as Brady segues into his post-football playing career that will likely be as successful as the past 23 years have been.
One of the great things about Brady has been incredible self-awareness, and that quality came through in his retirement announcement video, fully realizing what happened last year — when he decided he would come out of retirement 40 days after hanging it up.
“I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning, I figured I’d just press record and let you guys know first. I won’t be long-winded. You only get one super emotional retirement essay, and I used mine up last year, so really, thank you guys so much to every single one of you for supporting me.”
The Tampa Bay Bucs will most likely slide back into irrelevance now. Brady told him what he was doing at 6 a.m. ET Wednesday.
Here’s a sample of what the man accomplished in a career that will never be equaled.
He won seven Super Bowl titles. He goes out as the all-time NFL career leader in passing yards (89,214), touchdown passes (649), and every other record that matters too.
Allow me to add some context and perspective here. Joe Montana threw for 273 touchdown passes and less than half the amount of passing yards as Brady.
Brady will now step into a prominent role as the lead game commentator on NFL games for Fox Sports. He has a booming business career, with 4,500 square-foot office headquarters in Sunny Isles, Florida, on Miami Beach.
He was a sixth-round NFL draft pick in 1999 and was not the number-one starter at the University of Michigan during his collegiate career. But he leaves the game on the Mount Rushmore of all-time sports legends that includes Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, and not that many more.
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