The 'G.O.A.T.' goes out on his terms and at the top of his game as Tom Brady retires

He came to the Patriots as an afterthought, a skinny sixth-round quarterback out of Michigan who was selected by Bill Belichick for a potential backup role to Drew Bledsoe. More than two decades later, after producing the greatest career in pro football history — and possibly pro sports history — Tom Brady is calling it a career.

Brady made it official Tuesday morning, announcing his retirement in a statement on social media, after ESPN had reported on Saturday that Brady had decided to retire and less than 24 hours after Brady himself said on his "Let’s Go" podcast that he still hadn’t made up his mind.

He knew all along.

"I have always believed the sport of football is an 'all-in' proposition — if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game," Brady wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. "There is a physical, mental, and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my very best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life.

"This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore. I have loved my NFL career and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention."

Brady and Belichick partnered to build the greatest and longest lasting dynasty the NFL has ever known, winning six championships over 20 seasons. And if there was any question whether Brady could have achieved all that without the most accomplished coach in football history, then he answered it by winning it all with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2020 season — at age 43. And then again, at age 44, when he led the NFL in touchdown passes and passing yards and led the NFL’s most prolific offense.

What an awe-inspiring run from an athlete who transformed everything about his game — from his scrawny physique to his uncanny ability to understand defenses and then dominate them with the precision of a surgeon. If you tried to take away his long passing game, then it would be dinks and dunks followed by inevitable end zone celebrations.

He took teams that had no business winning championships yet carried them to the title anyway, lifting varying casts of teammates upon his shoulders and carrying them to half a dozen Vince Lombardi Trophy victories in New England and another in Tampa, where he and his old Patriots pal Rob Gronkowski delivered the Bucs’ franchise a second Super Bowl title. After which he celebrated by cavalierly completing passes with the silver trophy during a boat parade.

He played longer than anyone could have imagined. Anyone but himself, of course. In fact, Brady had told close friends years ago that he thought he could play until he was 45, so he actually fell one year short of that vision. But it is more than likely that no one will ever play as long or produce as much as Brady, who defied the odds throughout his career and wound up creating a legacy for the ages.

And if this day may have come as a mild surprise to those who thought Brady could continue playing at a high level — after all, he led the league in passing yards this past season, for goodness sake — then Brady himself offered a hint that it was over. During Jim Gray’s "Let’s Go" podcast last week, Brady talked about how much harder it was becoming to separate football from family.

He’d already resisted the entreaties of his wife, Gisele Bundchen, who had been telling him for years that there was nothing left to prove. But Brady kept coming back, addicted to the process, addicted to the competition, unable to resist playing one more season, hoping to win one more championship. But now, with his children getting older and needing more time with their father, the tug of family life was pulling at him.

"Football is extremely important in my life, and it means a lot to me, and I care a lot about what we’re trying to accomplish as a team and I care a lot about my teammates," Brady said. "The biggest difference now that I’m older is I have kids now, too, you know, and I care about them a lot as well. They’ve been my biggest supporters. My wife is my biggest supporter. It pains her to see me get hit out there. And she deserves what she needs from me as a husband, and my kids deserve what they need from me as a dad."

By Tuesday morning, it was official. In a series of tweets and Instagram posts, Brady thanked his family, the Bucs organization and his teammates, and the city of Tampa. Curiously absent was a mention of the Patriots, although he offered similar sentiments when he left the team to join Tampa. Still, you’d have expected at least another acknowledgement, although knowing Brady, who is always mindful of his legacy, has something else planned for the team that drafted him and the team he built into the greatest of all time.

Brady has been a part of the NFL since just after the turn of the century and had become a fixture in January and February nearly every year. He gave us half of the Brady-Peyton Manning rivalry, the best quarterback duel in NFL history. And he helped make Belichick, once considered a failure during his run in Cleveland, the winningest coach in playoff history and a Hall of Fame lock.

And then he delivered his seventh Super Bowl title in Tampa, proving yet again how much one man really can be the difference in the most challenging team sport on earth.

Of course, no history of Brady can be told without the most controversial legacy of his career, when he was at the center of the Deflategate storm in which he was alleged to have had Patriots equipment personnel purposely take air out of the footballs because it gave him a better grip. Brady never admitted culpability, and he fought the NFL through the courts before running out of appeals and ultimately serving a four-game suspension at the beginning of the 2016 season. The Patriots were forced to surrender two draft picks, and Brady was rightly criticized for bending the rules, even if he insists it didn’t happen.

But as he has done throughout his career, Brady responded to the outcry the only way he knew how: by continuing to win. The Patriots won the Super Bowl just two weeks after the controversy flared, and Brady won MVP honors in a thrilling 28-24 win over the Seahawks. And there would be two more Super Bowl MVP performances after that, including the one that will be his last in Tampa’s win over Kansas City last year.

His legacy may have been tarnished a bit by Deflategate, but the silver on those seven Lombardi trophies still shines brightly for the iconic quarterback. He’d always lived to win the next one, a competitive fire that never could be fully extinguished. And time never did catch up to him because Brady goes out at the top of his game. What did change was his heart, and the tug of his family meant too much to forgo the moments and the memories of husband and father.

A brilliant career is now over, and Brady can walk away knowing there was nothing left to give. And knowing there may be no one else capable of coming close to all he accomplished.

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”