Tom Brady leaves the New England Patriots where under Bill Belichick he built a claim to be considered the NFL’s greatest ever quarterback
The pair have dominated the NFL for two decades.
What started as a marriage of convenience became the sport’s unquestioned power couple. But on Tuesday, in a bombshell announcement, Tom Brady announced he is parting ways with the Patriots – and his coach, Bill Belichick.
Between them they’ve won six Super Bowls, more than any other duo. They went to three more; another record. They won 17 division titles (a record), and Brady won 219 games as Belichick’s quarterback (yes, that one’s a record too).
Perhaps most memorably, considering they have always been a pair that never knew they were beaten, they engineered a record 58 game-winning drives as the clock ticked to zero. There will never be anything quite like them.
Legacy building
They both arrived in New England with significantly less buzz than Brady left it on Tuesday. Belichick turned up after a horrible stint as a rookie head coach at the cursed Cleveland Browns, and Brady was drafted 199th in the draft after spending most of his college career at Michigan competing for a starting job with Drew Henson, who ended up playing baseball.
But that all changed when Jets linebacker Mo Lewis mowed down Patriots starting QB Drew Bledsoe in an early-season game in 2001. Called in to replace New England’s star, the unfancied Brady lost that game.
The rest is history: buoyed by Brady, the team went on a tear through the latter half of the season, benefitting from a botched umpiring decision in an iconic snow game against Oakland and then going on to beat the offensive juggernaut Rams in the Super Bowl as arguably the game’s biggest ever underdog.
Two further Super Bowl victories in the next three years secured his legacy as a great of the game early on.
Best quarterback of all time
But while Brady’s reputation in his early years was as a sensible game manager, it was when Belichick took the stabilisers off that he became not just a great story but arguably the best quarterback of all time.
In 2007, the Patriots broke with the habit of a lifetime and traded for the always controversial superstar receiver Randy Moss. Pundits wondered whether Moss would fit the Pats’ team-first mantra.
That question was answered in the opening game of the season away at the bitter rival Jets; Brady hit Moss on a 51-yard play-action bomb, the ball perfectly judged to beat triple coverage in the secondary.
Brady threw 50 touchdowns that year for 4,806 yards with only eight interceptions. It was a season without precedent.
Time catching up
One supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, and three more Super Bowl victories later – a clutch fourth quarter against the highly-fancied Seattle Seahawks, engineering the biggest comeback in playoff history against Atlanta, and a by-hook-or-by-crook win against the Rams – and Brady’s arm was in a very different state.
However, by the end of last season, Brady began to look like the 41-year-old he is. His last game, a disappointing home playoff loss to the Titans, will not live long in the memory.
His production down the stretch in 2019 simply didn’t justify the salary and cap hit the Patriots would be stuck with. So on Tuesday morning Brady announced his football journey would head “elsewhere.” The Buccaneers and the Chargers look like the most likely landing spots for the NFL’s the greatest of all time.
As for Belichick? He’s cut loose many fan-favourites in New England and nobody is ever bigger than the team. But next year he’ll send a new man out under centre and a new era will begin for the NFL.
Brady’s five most memorable games
Super Bowl XXXVI v St Louis Rams
Brady’s fairytale season ended with Adam Vinatieri’s last-second field goal. Crowned MVP, the Patriots knew they had their man.
Super Bowl XXXVIII v Carolina Panthers
A humdrum game exploded into life in the second half, with Brady throwing three scores, including to linebacker turned tight end Mike Vrabel.
Week 1, 2007 v New York Jets
The Patriots announced they were a cut above, and Brady unleashed his arm. They would go 16-0 that year, only the second perfect regular season.
Super Bowl LI v Atlanta Falcons
Down 28-3 at the start of the fourth quarter, Brady engineered the most unlikely comeback to secure his fifth Super Bowl ring.
2001-2016 – Brady v Manning
It’s impossible to pick one, but the series of games between arguably the two best quarterbacks of all time – Brady’s Pats against Peyton’s Colts and Broncos – defined an era.