Eight years ago, Tom Brady famously said on this radio station that, “When I suck, I’ll retire.”
He didn’t “suck” by any normal quarterback standards this past season. Throwing for 4,694 yards with 25 touchdowns, nine interceptions and a 90.7 passer rating while making the playoffs isn’t exactly bad.
But it was certainly a season that didn’t meet his standards. Brady had a losing record for the first time in his 22 seasons as a starting NFL quarterback. His Buccaneers got run off the field in the Wild Card round by a Cowboys team that was far from a juggernaut.
There have, understandably, been questions about whether it was really worth it for Brady. Was it worth coming out of his short-lived retirement last year just for this? Was it worth prioritizing football one more time, seemingly at the expense of his home life?
Brady’s 40-day retirement, which began exactly one year ago to the day of the seemingly more permanent announcement he made Wednesday, was a punch line. The year that followed, with a losing record on the field and a divorce off it, was just kind of sad.
In the immediate aftermath of it all, it’s only natural to feel like Brady hung around at least one year too long, and possibly even damaged his reputation in the process. It was a feeling former teammate Jermaine Wiggins expressed on The Greg Hill Show Wednesday morning.
“This is part of his legacy. I don’t see how you can’t see that,” Wiggy said (beginning at 14:10 mark in the clip below). “…What was the purpose of coming back? Why the divorce? … People want to know. Why come back? Why finish on this kind of down stride where people are like, ‘Oh, Brady doesn’t look the same’?”
The reality, however, is that as time goes on, this will not be part of Brady’s legacy. How his career ended is not what we’ll remember. We only fixate on it now because it’s fresh in our minds.
This is how it ends for most all-time greats. Rarely do they actually go out on top like Ray Bourque did with the Avalanche in 2001. In large part because of the competitiveness that made them all-time greats, they more often push themselves as far as they possibly can and only stop when there is no longer a single drop of gas left in the tank.
The sad sputtering and slow roll into the breakdown lane don’t detract from how enjoyable the whole ride was, though.
We remember Michael Jordan winning six NBA titles with the Bulls, not cussing out teammates while missing the playoffs with the Wizards. We remember Wayne Gretzky breaking records with the Oilers and Kings, not scoring nine goals in 70 games and missing the playoffs in his final season with the Rangers. Bobby Orr’s three sad, injury-plagued years in Chicago are rightfully an afterthought compared to his 10 magical years in Boston. Does anyone care that Jerry Rice’s final act as a player was failing to win a starting job in training camp with the Broncos at 42 years old? Does anyone even know that Babe Ruth’s playing career ended with him hitting .181 in 28 games on a last-place Boston Braves team?
Compared to some of those, Brady might as well have gone out on top. Maybe if Brady had failed immediately upon arriving in Tampa, there would be an argument that he did some sort of damage to his legacy. In that case, trying to prolong his career with another team instead of spending it all with the Patriots could have been considered a misstep.
But that didn’t happen. Brady justified the move in Year 1 with the Bucs, winning a remarkable seventh Super Bowl in 2020. In Year 2 there, he led the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns and finished second in MVP voting.
Brady’s first two years in Tampa only added to his legacy and further cemented his place as the greatest of all time. That he probably hung around one year too long and ended his career on a disappointing note does nothing to detract from that. It will barely even be a footnote when we reflect on Brady’s career in the years and decades to come.
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