Tom Brady, Mr. Super Bowl will continue to be NFL’s greatest winner for a long time. His legend as a Patriot is coming to an end after he has announced he will listen to offers from other teams.
The start of his brilliant career, which includes six champion rings in nine opportunities left an immediate impact, although very few would have bet this would happen.
Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born on August 3rd, 1977, and after playing in the University of Michigan he was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 Draft.
His reign in the League started almost as soon as he arrived. He is the only quarterback in history to win a Super Bowl in his first season as a starter.
Two somehow random situations combined in order for Brady to build his glorious path. First, Drew Bledsoe got injured so Tom was now the starter for the 2001 season. With his great skills and his coach Bill Belichick’s support, in his playoff game, Brady got the win against the Oakland Raiders, he then defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers to earn the Super Bowl ticket.
On February 3rd, 2002, 18 years ago, the Pats were in a Super Bowl for the first time in their history. The 20-17 victory over the St. Louis Rams open the door for one of the greatest players of all time.
His win in the field of Louisiana’s Superdome meant the start of an impressive career, Brady would later win Super Bowl editions XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, LI and LIII.
Surrounded by scandals
With that enormous success the critics started talking. Despite changing the game’s history, two different controversies have surrounded the most dominant team in the history of the NFL.
The first one took place in 2007, when Coach Belichick was accused and the found guilty of videotaping his rivals, the New York Jets, in a game in September of that year. The coach received a 500 thousand dollar fine and another 250,000 for the team.
The second scandal happened in 2016, when the Patriots were accused of deflating balls in their match against the Indianapolis Colts on January 18, 2015, which they won 47-5.
The league announced on May 11th a four-game suspension for Tom Brady for the upcoming 2016 season, while the team received a million-dollar fine.
Despite this, the records of Brady and the Patriots are here to stay. They won back to back titles in the 2003 and 2004 seasons. They went back to the Super Bowl on 2007 but lost for the first time against New York Giants.
Their fifth visit to the last game of the season happened in the 2011 season. Brady would lose to the Giants again. His sixth opportunity came in 2014, when they secured their fourth title with a win over the Seattle Seahawks.
A seventh visit gave them their fifth title in the 2016 season, when they came back to beat the Atlanta Falcons. In their eighth appearance in a Superbowl for the 2017 season, New England came short against the Philadelphia Eagles. History gave Brady another shot, and he didn’t miss when he and his team got their sixth ring with a win over LA Rams in Super Bowl LIII.
Brady’s success cannot be denied; maybe the debate will continue many years after he retires. The way he has won will always raise questions, yet you just can’t refute the numbers and today he is the GOAT. Period.
