A Recap: Tom Brady

by Brooke Huppert, edited by Uday Lingampalli, Geethi Tarra, & Shayna Mehta, Art & Layout by Sahithi Lingampalli

Many consider the former quarterback for the Buccaneers and Patriots, Tom Brady, as one of the best football players of all time. His image is iconic, and he has captivated American audiences for over two decades. Well known for his skill, Tom Brady has become a household name.

One of the most notable aspects of his career is how long it lasted. The average amount of time a quarterback plays in the National Football League (NFL) is three years (Bloom, 2019). Reasons for retiring are numerous, but most are related to skill, health concerns and other injuries. Brady’s career spanned an extensive 22 years (Kerr, 2022). It is difficult to say what Tom Brady’s biggest accomplishment is; he has broken numerous records throughout his career and never had a losing season. Brady holds “nearly every major quarterback record, including passing yards, completions, touchdown passes, and games started, in addition to the most Pro Bowl selections'' (Wikipedia, n.d). But if you ask anyone who is a football fan, it's likely that they'll mention his Super Bowl wins. Brady won an astounding seven super bowl titles, more than any other player in the league (Kerr, 2022).

To properly describe Brady’s football career, it is best to start from the beginning. Brady was born in 1977 and played baseball and football in high school. Although he entered the Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft, he went on to play football in college, starting his junior year at the University of Michigan. He went on to play for the New England Patriots, being picked in the sixth round of the draft. Brady would go on to be the quarterback for the Patriots for the next 20 years.

However, all this success didn’t come without its share of controversy. To be impartial, Brady has been involved in very little controversy, given that he has been in the public eye for so long. The most notable of them would be “Deflategate”, a scandal that Brady was involved in after the Patriots were accused of deflating their footballs to give them an unfair advantage in the 2015 AFC championships. Although many of his fans argued that it was unfair to blame the action of an entire team on one man, Brady did act as the figurehead for the team, due to his role as the quarterback. The NFL would go on to suspend Brady from playing for four games (Morris, 2022). This light punishment was thought of by many to be a result of privilege, with David Leonard saying that “Tom Brady demonstrates the unflinching power of whiteness in contemporary America. Black people are punished and demonized for cheating. White men like Tom Brady get to do all sorts of shit for a competitive edge and they are gaming the system” (Zirin, 2021).

Regardless of his controversies, Tom Brady’s football career has cemented him in the American public consciousness as one of the most influential football players of all time. Brady went from an overlooked rookie to one of the most highly regarded football players and athletes ever; it’s a bit of a Cinderella story. No one ever thought he would become the icon that he is today. His story is inspirational, he pushes himself to become one of the best, it's a narrative that everyone likes to hear. Although Brady is retiring from football, his legacy undoubtedly here to stay.

by Sahithi Lingampalli