TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady, who won a record seven Super Bowls for New England and Tampa Bay, has announced his retirement.
Brady – the most successful quarterback in NFL history, and one of the greatest athletes in team sports – posted the announcement on social media Wednesday morning, a brief video lasting just under one minute.
“Good morning guys. I’ll get to the point right away,” Brady says as the message begins. “I’m retiring. For good.”
He briefly retired after the 2021 season but wound up coming back for one more year with the Buccaneers. He retires at age 45, the owner of numerous passing records in an unprecedented 23-year career.
Brady played his last regular-season game in Atlanta, losing 30-17 against the Falcons on Jan. 8.
Brady put on his baseball cap late in the second quarter after completing 13 of 17 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown. He finished with a passer rating of 106 and helped the Bucs build a 17-10 halftime lead.
Brady needed nine completions against the Falcons to break his record for most completions in a season. He needed 12 attempts to break Matthew Stafford’s season mark for pass attempts.
With the records set and the score 10-10, Brady gave way to Blaine Gabbert and Kyle Trask.
The Buccaneers won the NFC South this season after finishing 8-9.
A year ago when he retired, it was in the form of a long Instagram post. But about six weeks later, he decided to come back for one more run. The Buccaneers – with whom he won a Super Bowl two seasons ago – made the playoffs again this season, losing 31-14 in the first round against the Cowboys. And at the time, it begged the question about whether Brady would play again.
Only a few weeks later, he has given the answer.
“I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning, I figured I’d just press record and let you guys know first,” Brady says in the video. “I won’t be long-winded. You only get one super emotional retirement essay, and I used mine up last year.
“I really thank you guys so much, to every single one of you for supporting me. My family, my friends, teammates, my competitors. I could go on forever. There’s too many. Thank you guys for allowing me to live my absolute dream. I wouldn’t change a thing. Love you all.”
Brady is the NFL’s career leader in yards passing (89,214) and touchdowns (649). He’s the only player to win more than five Super Bowls and has been MVP of the game five times.
Famously underrated coming into the NFL – he was picked 199th in the 2000 draft by the Patriots, behind six other quarterbacks, three kickers and a punter – Brady certainly wasn’t expected to become synonymous with greatness. He played in one game as a rookie, completing 1 of 3 passes for 6 yards.
The next year, it all changed.
Brady took over as the Patriots’ starter, the team defeated the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl that capped the 2001 season, and he and New England coach Bill Belichick were well on their way to becoming the most successful coach-QB duo in football history.
More Super Bowl wins came after the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The Patriots returned to football’s mountaintop for a fourth time in Brady’s era a decade later to cap the 2014 season, the start of three more titles in a span of five years.
In 2020, he joined the Buccaneers and won his seventh Super Bowl. He spent his last three years with Tampa Bay, getting them to the playoffs in each of those seasons.
“I think I’ve been on the record dozens of times saying there’s no quarterback I’d rather have than Tom Brady, and I still feel that way,” Belichick said in 2021 – shortly before Tampa Bay, with Brady, came to New England and beat the Patriots in a game dubbed “The Return.” “I was very lucky to have Tom as the quarterback, to coach him, and he was as good as any coach could ever ask for.”
Brady has won three NFL MVP awards, been a first-team All-Pro three times and selected to the Pro Bowl 15 times.
Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen finalized their divorce this past fall, during the Bucs’ season. It ended a 13-year marriage between two superstars who respectively reached the pinnacles of football and fashion.
It was announced last year that when Brady retires from playing, he would join Fox Sports as a television analyst in a 10-year, $375 million deal.
Rich Barak of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.
