Tom Brady, one of the world’s most decorated professional athletes and widely regarded as the greatest player in NFL history, announced his retirement Wednesday. This time for good.
“I’ll just get right to the point,” Brady, who just finished his 23rd season, said in a short video posted on social media. “I am retiring. For good.”
Brady, 45, leaves the league as the winner of seven Super Bowls, an NFL record and tops the list in every major passing statistic. He was the oldest player in the NFL this season, but played at an elite level until the end.
Brady retired after his third season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and at one point this campaign it looked like it might not happen: Brady announced on February 1, 2022He said he would retire, but he did He changed his mind He returned to play less than six weeks later. This season was his worst as a professional – the team finished with an 8-9 record and lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round of the playoffs. But Brady threw for 4,694 passing yards, third in the league, while completing 66.8 percent of his passes.
The season came against the backdrop of a tense period in his personal life. Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen, his wife of more than 13 years, They announced their divorce in October.
After signing with Fox Sports in 2022, he is expected to step into a role as a television broadcaster. It is said to be worth 375 million dollars Over 10 years. Brady also runs several businesses: he co-founded the health and wellness company DB12 Sports with his longtime trainer, Alex Guerrero; Religion of Sports, a media company; and the Brady Brand clothing line.
Brady joined the Buccaneers in 2020, Led Tampa Bay to Super Bowl victory In his first year with the team. To do so, he left the New England Patriots, the franchise for which he had played his entire career up to that point. After spending two decades in New England, where he won six world championships, Brady did not come to terms on a new contract, and the team allowed him to leave as an unrestricted free agent.
The Patriots drafted Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He won the quarterback job at the start of his second season in 2001, replacing an injured Drew Bledsoe, and led New England to its first Super Bowl victory. Brady was linked with coach Bill Belichick throughout his career in New England, and the two forged one of the league’s marquee dynasties. In addition to winning six Super Bowls, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers, among the NFL’s franchises, the Patriots have appeared in nine Super Bowls and 13 AFC Championship Games.
But his life in New England also faced challenges. The NFL suspended Brady for five games in 2015 after an investigation into whether the team knowingly deflated the football to gain an advantage in the 2015 AFC Championship Game. Brady was handed a “common knowledge” four-game suspension The scandal known as Deflategate.
After fumbling against the Oakland Raiders in a playoff game prior to his first Super Bowl victory, Brady also faced the so-called “Duck Rule,” which states that if a quarterback loses the ball while his arm ends. An intentional forward movement should result in the play being ruled an incomplete pass instead of a fumble.
