Tom Brady did everything right on Tuesday. He is sitting in a meadow, behind him an ugly prefabricated building. Operating the cell phone camera himself, he says: “I want to get straight to the point: I’m stopping, for good this time. I know there was a lot of hype last time. When I woke up this morning, I… thought: I’ll just hit the record button now and let you guys know. Won’t take too long; all you get is a super emotional essay at the end of your career, and I had mine last year. Thanks everyone for making my dream come true allowed to live.”
The best football player in history couldn’t have done it any better – because just as he wrote his essay last year, all the hymns of praise and documentaries have already been published. Brady didn’t add much athletically to his incredible career last season – although what he did add was still more than most career footballers achieve: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the playoffs (and there in the lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the first round), and he played in Munich, 21:16 against the Seattle Seahawks. It was a gift to the many German football fans to have seen this guy with my own eyes.
The numbers that were mentioned when he first resigned exactly a year ago remain: ten finals, seven Super Bowl triumphs, titles in three different decades, with the Patriots in 2002, ’04, ’05, ’14, ’16 and ’18 and 2021 with the Buccaneers.
A few stats needed updating: 251 wins, 35 of them in the playoffs. 649 touchdown passes. 89 214 yards gaining space with passes. All records – it would be easier to name all the NFL records that he not has set up. It doesn’t get any better than this, and probably no one will ever be as successful again, which is why the term “Greatest of All Time” (which includes the future) is probably even correct in his case.
A pro’s most important muscle is often the one between the ears
He still gave people something this season. With such unique things, one sometimes wonders what one can take with oneself, for one’s own life. With Brady, those were three lessons: It’s not always the gifted who wins in life; but often the one who works the hardest to get there (his fitness and diet plans are notorious). Second: Not everything can be recorded statistically, the most important muscle of a professional is often the one between the ears; an area that is still completely under-researched and is therefore usually only referred to as “mental strength”.
Third, the best doesn’t always make the most money. Brady has never been the highest-paid NFL pro in his career, not even the highest-paid quarterback. In doing so, however, he enabled his clubs to put better people at his side in view of the salary cap. Yes, Brady had great teammates very often, but one might ask if he didn’t have a huge part to play in forgoing even more money. Answer: Yes, he did.
What Brady taught people this season can be seen in the documentary film The Tuck Rule. It’s about this referee’s decision in the first playoff game of his career, January 2002 against the Oakland Raiders, which is still the subject of heated debate today, like the Wembley goal in football. At some point, the question arises: What would have happened if the referees had ruled against him? Almost everyone agrees that in the following season he would have been a bench presser instead of Super Bowl champion and regular player – and people would have said about this situation: At the crucial moment his nerves failed him, he lost the ball.
Always be ready, then you will be too when luck is on your side.
“I’ve been very lucky in my career,” says Brady: “But I would have found a way. Great things happen when luck and good decisions come together – and I think I made some right decisions.” The man who suffered the most from that decision – Charles Woodson, once a college buddy at the University of Michigan, who had outlined it at the time – says of it today: “I don’t like the word destiny. For a lot of things in life you are of responsible.”
Brady was: ready. Always. That’s the real red thread of this career. He wasn’t just in the right place at the right time – he almost was always in the right place. How often do you say: “If I had the chance, if this or that had gone differently, if someone recognized my talent…” But: how often in life do you let opportunities pass because at that one moment but not ready? Brady’s message is: always be ready, and when luck is in your favor, you will be too.
He is now apparently ready for a new life. Finally. He’s done a lot of things right in his career and he did everything right on Tuesday. When he gets sentimental, when you can tell he’s in tears, he does what he did with his career: he says he loves everyone, hits stop, and that’s it.
