Guess who is back.
Back again.
Tom Brady is back, don’t tell more friends. As if you did not know. If you are a football fan who lived under a rock, chances are you heard of “TB12.”
Brady is a Super Bowl Champion again, this time for the seventh time, and he wasted no time in sharing he will be back next season.
Ring number seven will look impressive on Brady’s resume when the ink dries.
The 43-year-old added his seventh championship win in his first year quarterbacking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the same year hosting the Super Bowl. The Buccaneers had not had a trip to playoffs in 13 years before Brady arrived. Moreover had the worst winning percentage in the history of the NFL.
Brady will not do you any favors like some of the other quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes have faced in comebacks when facing a deficit. He will cut the mistakes down where needed.
Here are some thoughts on why number seven is impressive.
Brady has seven rings, all active quarterbacks, including Drew Brees, who may retire soon, have eight rings. He has taken his talents to the Super Bowl 10 times. More than active quarterbacks have rings.
Brady won his seventh Lombardi trophy, easily leading a wild card team. Brady defeated Hall of Fame quarterbacks Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes. It is arguably one of the best Super Bowl runs a quarterback has been on. He now owns more Super Bowl MVP trophies (five) than Joe Montana (four), and Terry Bradshaw (four) own rings.
Brady threw 50 touchdown passes this season at age 43. When he won his first Super Bowl, Mahomes was age six. It is not easy to join a new team, new head coach, new offensive coordinator after leaving an organization that you were professional in taking pay cuts and still was not given added talent for the offense. Leonard Fournette, Antonio Brown, and Rob Gronkowski all scored in his recent Super Bowl win. They won with Brady and were not on the Buccaneers roster last season.
“It ‘s been an amazing year; we got off to a good start,” Brady said. “Then had a rough stretch when we found our identity. Played a lot better football down the stretch, December, January. Proud of all the guys, all the coaches, the effort we put in. We knew we were playing a great football team tonight. You want to get this far. You want to get the job done.”
Mahomes was pressured 29 times in Super Bowl LV, the most in Super Bowl history, finishing with a quarterback rating of 52.3. Brady may have looked across the field and knew Mahomes was having a long day. It is not easy.
Super Bowl win No.7 is the one that stands out if he wins more or not. He is the first player in NFL history to win multiple titles after turning 40. Brady has a Hall of Fame career after turning the age of 40 winning two Super Bowls with two different teams.
“When to walk away, that’s a good question; I think I will know when it is time,” Brady said. “I don’t know when that time will come. You can’t ever think you are satisfied; you have to continue to build, grow, learn and evolve.”
After turning 40, Brady played in three super bowls, won an NFL MVP, and leads the NFL in wins.
Brady won the latest Super Bowl without New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Brady can’t throw the ball to himself, but you have to tip your cap off to him. He lacks in athleticism but does the fundamental things at quarterback very well; coaches can count on the field and locker room.
“Everybody looks to him; everybody wants to be like him,” Buccaneers linebacker Levonte David said. “From the moment he stepped into the locker room, you felt that winning pedigree. You understood why he won his seventh championship ring now. I am glad to be a teammate of his; he got us to the championship. You could not ask for nothing more.”
It is hard to get 53 teammates, from different backgrounds, together during a pandemic when you cannot even be close to them and get them to buy into what you believe. He brought the TB12 way down to Tampa; that is what they needed. It built stronger and stronger as the season went on, leading them to dismantle the Chiefs in a way many did not see coming.
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