Before Tom Brady had even walked off of Lambeau Field, he had already staked his claim as the best ever. Even if he loses in Super Bowl LV, his record 45th playoff game and 10th Super Bowl appearance, the case is strong.
When Brady (a backup quarterback) led a fourth-quarter comeback drive to upset the St. Louis Rams in 2002, we had no idea this would become a mainstay of the next two decades. Now, he’s still doing it to a new generation of defenses.
The last of Brady’s teammates from any of his first three Super Bowl wins, Adam Vinatieri and Ben Watson, retired last season. The opponents from those have retired as well. Even two of the opposing coaches he played against are no longer coaching at any level. The third is Andy Reid, who will get a second shot at Brady in the big game 16 years later.
Brady’s first Super Bowl win came 13 months before the United States entered the Iraq War. Michael Jordan, another of the best in his sport, was still one season away from retiring. Patrick Mahomes, who will be playing quarterback opposite of Brady, was 6 years old. I was four.
Brady won his second Super Bowl against my favorite team, the Carolina Panthers, five years before I even started following the NFL. This year, he beat them twice on the way to taking the hated Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl. It’s a vicious cycle.
Football is the ultimate team sport, a fact that is not appreciated nearly enough. But even then, Brady’s excellence shines through. He is currently the NFL’s career leader in passing touchdowns, and he’ll likely become the career leader in passing yards when he inevitably returns next season.
With just the slightest Eli Manning-shaped shadow, Brady’s career is the perfect story of an underdog rising to the pinnacle of his craft. No one could have anticipated even a fraction of the success when the scrawny guy from Michigan was picked in the sixth round. And even at age 43, with other star quarterbacks of the era in the twilight of their careers, Brady looks like he could play for another five.
It is a level of greatness we haven’t seen in a team sport since Jordan in the ’90s. It’s greatness that we have never seen in the sport of football, and we don’t know if we will see anything like it in the future. So, whether you are rooting for him or not this year, be sure to appreciate the greatness we’re witnessing while it lasts.
