Tom Brady retires from NFL, insisting this time it’s for good

Tom Brady, who won a record seven Super Bowls for New England and Tampa, has announced his retirement.

Brady – the most successful quarterback in the history of the NFL, and one of the greatest athletes in team sports – sent an announcement on social media Wednesday morning, a brief video lasting just under one minute.

“Good morning guys. I’ll get straight to the point,” said Brady as the message began. “I’m retiring. For good.”

He briefly retired after the 2021 season, but returned for one more year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He retired at the age of 45, a record holder over an unprecedented 23-year career.

A year ago when he retired, it was in the form of a long Instagram post. But about six weeks later, he decided to come back to run again. The Buccaneers – with whom he won the Super Bowl two seasons ago – made the playoffs again this season, losing in their playoff opener. And at that time begs the question of whether Brady will play again.

Just a few weeks later, he had an answer.

“I know the process is a pretty big deal, so when I woke up this morning, I thought I’d just hit record and let you know first,” Brady said in the video. “I won’t be long. You only get one super emotional retirement essay and I used mine last year.

“I’m really grateful to each and every one of you for supporting me. My family, my friends, my friends, my rivals. I can go on forever. There are too many. I dream. I wouldn’t change a thing. Love all of you.”

Brady is the NFL’s career leader in passing yards (89,214) and touchdowns (649). He is the only player to win more than five Super Bowls and has been the game’s MVP five times.

Famously underrated in the NFL – he was selected 199th in the 2000 draft by the Patriots, behind six other quarterbacks, three kickers and a punter – Brady certainly wasn’t expected to become synonymous with greatness. He played in one game as a freshman, completing one of three passes for six yards.

The next year, everything changed.

Brady took over as the Patriots starter, the team defeated St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl that closed the 2001 season, and he and New England coach Bill Belichick are also on the way to become the most successful coach-QB duo. football history.

More Super Bowl victories followed the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The Patriots returned to the top of the football mountain for the fourth time in the Brady era a decade later to close out the 2014 season, the start of three more titles in five years.

In 2020, he joined the Buccaneers and won his seventh Super Bowl. He spent the last three years with Tampa Bay, taking them to the playoffs in each of those seasons.

3-time NFL MVP

“I think I’ve said many times on the record that there’s no quarterback I like more than Tom Brady, and I still feel that way,” Belichick said in 2021 – shortly before Tampa Bay, with Brady, arrived in New York. England and beat the Patriots in a game called “The Return.” “I’m very happy to have Tom as a quarterback, to coach him, and he’s as good as a coach could ask for.”

Brady has won three NFL MVP awards, been a first-team All-Pro three times and been selected to the Pro Bowl 15 times.

Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen finalized their divorce last fall, during the Bucs season. It ended a 13-year marriage between two superstars who had each reached the pinnacle of football and fashion.

It was announced last year that when Brady retired from playing, he would join Fox Sports as a television analyst in a 10-year, $375 million deal.