LOS ANGELES, February 1, 2023 — Quarterback Tom Brady, who lost three Super Bowls, has quit football.
Again.
He left the game less than two weeks after a miserable loss at home to the Dallas Cowboys. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback was awful in front of his fans at the Big Sombrero in Tampa, Florida. The winning quarterback was Dak Prescott, who has a losing playoff record. This comes one year after Brady lost to Matthew Stafford, who had never won a playoff game. Against a Brady-led team, Prescott and Stafford thrived.
Most of Brady’s career was with the New England Patriots. He experienced plenty of failures in big games.
In the 2007 Super Bowl, the Patriots were playing against a New York Giants team that barely qualified for the playoffs. On the biggest stage, the Patriots offense was awful. When Eli Manning gave the Giants a 17-14 lead late, Brady was unable to launch a comeback.
The 2011 Patriots also lost to the Giants as Manning again outplayed Brady. Manning gave the Giants a late 21-17 lead, and Brady again failed to lead a comeback.
In 2017, the Patriots played in the Super Bowl against an Eagles team that had never won one. The Eagles were led by a backup quarterback named Nick Foles. Again, Brady was outplayed. Trailing 38-33 late with a chance to win, Brady was hit and fumbled. Unlike a controversial Brady fumble to begin his career, this time the fumble counted. Brady’s team again went down to defeat.
While Brady could not beat Eli Manning, he had even more frustrations in big games against Eli’s big brother Peyton Manning.
In the 2006 AFC Title Game between the Patriots and Manning’s Colts, the New England defense gave the Patriots a 21-3 lead. The Patriots could not hold that lead. Late in the game Manning led the Colts to a 38-34 lead. Brady had plenty of time to be the hero. Instead he went down to defeat again by throwing an interception.
In the 2015 AFC Title Game, Brady led the Patriots against Manning’s newest team, the Denver Broncos. The Broncos held a 20-18 lead with seconds left in the game. All the Patriots needed was one two-point conversion to tie the game and send it into overtime. Brady’s pass to the end zone was batted up in the air and intercepted. Again, Brady lost and Manning won.
Brady had some of his worst games against the Baltimore Ravens when it mattered most. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco outplayed Brady and humiliated the Patriots in front of their home fans 33-14 in the 2009 Divisional playoff game and 28-13 in the 2012 AFC Title Game.
Brady suffered so many playoff losses that NFL fans began calling him the goat.
Despite all of these losses, Brady was the best quarterback of his class. He outlasted Spergon Wynn, Gio Carmazzi, and a few other players chosen in the 2000 NFL Draft ahead of Mr. Irrelevant.
While Johnny Unitas and Otto Graham remain the two best quarterbacks to ever play professional football, Brady despite the losses did have a career worthy of his era.
Brady was expected to remain a backup to Patriots Superstar Drew Bledsoe, who had just signed a 10 year, $10 million contract. Late in the second game of the 2001 season, Bledsoe suffered a life-threatening injury by Jets defensive star Mo Lewis. Brady entered the game with the Patriots trailing 10-3. Given a chance to tie the game, Brady failed.
Later that season, the Patriots hosted a playoff game against the Oakland Raiders. Late in the game, it was the same old story for Brady. With five inches of snow coming down and the Patriots trailing 13-10, Brady was hit by Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson and fumbled. Raiders defensive standout Greg Biekert recovered. Brady walked off the field dejected and disgusted at having blown the game. He was truly the goat. Yet Brady and his team were bailed out when Referee Walt Coleman declared Brady’s fumble an incomplete pass. Coleman misapplied an obscure rule called the Tuck Rule, giving Brady the biggest bailout not associated with the 2008 financial crisis. The Tuck Rule was eventually repealed and removed from the NFL rulebook.
Brady’s most humiliating loss came in the 2010 playoffs against the New York Jets. Several weeks earlier the Patriots had carpet-bombed the Jets 45-3. In front of their home fans, the Patriots were expected to easily role over their rivals. The Jets were led by Mark Sanchez, who would eventually become known for giving up a touchdown on a butt-fumble. The butt-fumbler beat Brady as the Jets smacked around the Patriots 28-21 in a game more lopsided than the score indicated.
Brady’s final game in New England was another playoff loss. The 2019 Patriots were leading at home 13-7 against the Tennessee Titans but fell behind 14-13 late. Brady had the ball with a chance to be the hero. A field goal would win the game, but it was not to be. Brady was intercepted and the Patriots lost 20-13. For one final time in New England, Brady was the goat.
While Bill Belichick was around for all of Brady’s losses in New England, Belichick had no role in Brady’s final playoff losses with the Buccaneers.
While Brady was an alpha male on the football field, he was a domesticated beta male at home. He married a domineering German model named Gisele Bundchen who was worth over half a billion dollars. Since she was the breadwinner, her orders were obeyed. She demanded that Brady quit football, and he obediently complied. When he tried to return, she divorced him. Now that he has quit again, fans of love everywhere hope they reconcile.
Despite all of his failures on the field, Brady did have some successes as well. He won seven Super Bowls and will be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Brady leaves the game after 23 seasons. While he was unable to reach Brett Favre’s legendary interception record, Brady at the time of his retirement did hold some of the other NFL passing records.
Brady will still need to retire and unretire several more times before reaching the levels of drama put forth by Favre and boxer Evander Holyfield.
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