Tom Brady retirement: Live updates, news as 7-time Super Bowl champion steps away after 22 seasons (2024)

Tom Brady officially announced his retirement Tuesday after seven Super Bowls, five Super Bowl MVP awards and three league MVP honors in 22 seasons with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Patriots picked Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, 199th overall, and saw him go on to become what many consider the greatest player in league history.

During the 2021 season, Brady set the NFL's all-time record for passing yards. He also is the NFL's passing touchdown leader at 624, in passing completions (7,263) and passing attempts (11,317). His 2021 season was one of the most prolific in his career, with a league-leading 5,316 yards and 43 touchdown passes. At age 44 he led all NFL quarterbacks in passing yards, attempts, completions and touchdowns.

Multiple reports Saturday said Brady was retiring, but he did not comment until Monday on his "Let's Go" podcast, saying he's "still going through the process" of making a decision. "When the time's right, I'll be ready to make a decision one way or the other," he added. He declined to give a timeline for a decision.

The live blog from The Athletic follows news, coverage, reaction and more surrounding Brady's retirement and even a look back at the quarterback's greatest moments.

Required reading on Tom Brady from The Athletic:

• Why winning a Super Bowl with the Bucs doesn't impact Brady's Patriots legacy
• Brady as a Patriot and his Foxboro farewell
• Brady’s obsession with greatness compared to other all-time great athletes
• Brady’s late-career endorsem*nt surge
• What it was like to cover Brady in New England
• What they said about Tom Brady before the 2000 draft
• There’s been no greater winner than Brady — there might never be
• Bucs GM Jason Licht will miss Brady, but has confidence in team

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

During a press conference at last summer’s European Championship, Cristiano Ronaldo removed Coca-Cola bottles from a table and encouraged people to drink water instead. In response, Tom Brady tweeted, “It’s almost as if the veterans know what they’re doing.”

Like Ronaldo, NFL quarterback Brady has defied the expectations for how long an athlete can compete at the highest level. By prioritising a healthy diet and deploying advanced training techniques, Brady remained an elite competitor well into his 40s. Ronaldo returned to the Premier League this season for a second spell with Manchester United and has scored 14 goals so far, double that of the next-best United player. He turns 37 on Saturday.

On average, quarterbacks play in the NFL for less than five years. Brady, who has just announced his retirement aged 44, played for 22 seasons. He leaves American football as the best quarterback of all time, winning seven Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He has more Super Bowl wins than any single NFL club, such was his dominance.

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Yes, yes, yes, Brady is football’s greatest quarterback. Case closed on that. It’s just that the retirement announcement wasn’t commensurate with the playing career, what with his dad, Tom Brady Sr., and agent, Don Yee, doing grammatical gymnastics in their quest to shoot down the rumors without denying them. What ended up happening is everyone came to the conclusion Brady was retiring, then sat around waiting for him to get on with it.

To put this into perspective, I’ve come up with a random list of the best and worst retirements in recent Boston sports history. And, yes, I’m including Brady as a Boston athlete even though he closed out his career in Tampa Bay and quarterbacked the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship. Sorry, but Brady isn’t exactly Mr. Buc.

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Brady’s best offenses by points per drive:

1. 2007 Patriots (3.19)
2. 2010 Patriots (2.75)
3. 2012 Patriots (2.74)
4. 2011 Patriots (2.69)
5. 2020 Bucs (2.68)

"We’re going to have continued success. I’m confident in that,” said Tampa Bay Bucs GM Jason Licht on Tuesday while reacting to the Brady retirement news.

Brady’s absence will make it harder for the Bucs to keep their own top free agents, and they have a deep and talented class potentially hitting the open market. But Licht notes that the solid core of the team is why Brady chose Tampa in the first place.

Read Greg Auman's full report of the conference.

Quarterback records in one score games (8 points or less), minimum 100 starts, playoffs included:

1. Tom Brady 107-50 (.682)
2. Peyton Manning 81-40 (.669)
3. Ben Roethlisberger 86-53 (.618)
4. Aaron Rodgers 63-49 (.562)
5. Russell Wilson 55-44 (.555)

Giants fans won't be shy reminding Tom Brady that Eli Manning got the best of him a few times.

But Manning shows the utmost respect here and provides proper context to 22 seasons of excellence: Manning watched Brady win a Super Bowl while he was in college, during his playing career and after he retired.

Tom Brady reset the standard of excellence.

When he entered the NFL in 2000 — with a doughy frame, dimpled smile and bare-minimum expectations — the sports world had no heir to Jordan, and no quarterback had ever been cooler than Joe.

It took but a few years for Brady to alter the landscape. And really, his career was only about a third of the way from its conclusion when it became so obvious Brady was becoming an icon. He was humble in the face of public praise, but Brady wasn’t the least bit bashful about unfurling his self-confidence in front of those who knew him the best.

Longtime Patriots teammate Julian Edelman was working out with his close friend in Los Angeles during the 2013 offseason when he caught his first glimpse of Brady’s maniacal motor. At the time, Edelman hadn’t realized Brady had been keeping a Super Bowl countdown in each of his home gyms — something the quarterback had been doing for years.

Brady, the owner of a modest three Lombardi Trophies, was a title shy of matching Joe Montana. For the Bay Area kids, that was supposed to be as deep as anyone could dream. At least, that’s what Edelman had thought.

“Bro, how crazy is it that you’re going after Montana?” Edelman asked Brady.

“I ain’t going for Montana,” Brady responded. “I’m going for Jordan.”

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(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

Tom Brady-quarterbacked teams were 73-43 (.629) when trailing in the fourth quarter, which ranks first among all QBs who played in at least 30 such games since 2000, including postseason.

The only other QB with a winning record in that scenario was Peyton Manning (48-42, .533).

Even if you expand it to Brady trailing by at least seven points entering the fourth quarter, he was 34-22, the only QB with a winning record in that situation.

In his age 44 season, Brady put up MVP level numbers.

Since turning 40, he had a 70-24 record, a 64.9% completion rate, 26,893 passing yards, 7.42 yards per attempt, 191 TDs and 59 interceptions.

Brady's stats since turning 40 include more games won and more yards and touchdowns thrown than any other QB taken in the 2000 draft had during their entire NFL career.

In 2014, Tom Brady told WEEI, “When I suck, I’ll retire.”

But it turns out, he couldn’t wait that long. Brady announced his retirement Tuesday morning at age 44 after 22 seasons in the NFL. And anyone who watched him throw for 5,316 yards and 43 touchdowns in his age-44 knows he didn’t suck. Not even a little bit.

Too often we watch NFL players stumble to the finish line. Brett Favre’s final season was littered with injuries. Dan Marino’s final game was a 62-7 loss to the Jaguars. Steve Young missed most of his last season with post-concussion symptoms. Those seasons didn’t diminish their legacies, but it’s unpleasant to watch legends hang on too long.

Not many players held on as long as Brady did. And it didn’t feel like a second too long, either. It says a lot about Brady’s career that his retirement at age 44 came as a surprise, if only because it was clear he was still among the best players in the league.

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