Tom Brady Is Officially Retiring From Football After 22 Seasons, According To ESPN
BOSTON (CBS) -- The greatest of all time is reportedly calling it a career. Tom Brady is retiring from football, ESPN is reporting.
ESPN's Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington put an end to the speculation by announcing that Brady is retiring from the NFL after 22 seasons.
There has been no official comment from Brady yet, although his agent Don Yee released a short statement after the news broke Saturday afternoon.
"I understand the advance speculation about Tom's future. Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what's being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy. He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well as anybody, so that should be soon," Yee said.
Brady's father refuted the report as well.
There have also been reports Brady has told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that "he has NOT made up his mind about retiring or playing in 2022."
Universally considered the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, Brady retires as the NFL's all-time leader in Super Bowl wins, passing touchdowns, passing yards, and completions. His 278 victories -- regular season and postseason combined -- are the most of all time.
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A seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, and three-time NFL MVP, Brady essentially authored three separate Hall of Fame careers.
From 2001-07, he won three Super Bowls and four AFC championships, throwing 197 touchdowns and 86 interceptions in the regular season while leading the Patriots to an 86-24 record. He also went 14-3 in the playoffs during that time, throwing 26 touchdowns and 12 touchdowns.
After suffering a torn ACL and missing essentially the entire 2008 season, Brady went 73-23 from 2009-14, throwing 195 touchdowns and 57 interceptions in the regular season. The playoff success took a hit, with Brady and the Patriots going 4-5 in the postseason from 2009-13 and losing Super Bowl XLVI in 2011. But in 2014, Brady threw 10 touchdowns and four interceptions en route to winning his first Super Bowl in a decade.
That was just the start of a late-career renaissance for Brady. He led the league in touchdown passes in 2015 at the age of 38, kicking off a stretch of going 83-26 with 232 touchdowns and 60 interceptions in the regular season. In the playoffs, he went 14-4 with the Patriots and Bucs, winning three more Super Bowls and reaching a fourth, throwing 33 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in those 18 games.
He led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns at the age of 44, capping an incredible post-40 run of success that nobody had ever achieved before and nobody is likely to do ever again.
Alas, a pull to spend more time with his family has been tugging at Brady for years, and he has at long last decided that his time has come to step away from the game.
