Tom Brady, 7-Time Super Bowl Champion, Retires After 22 Seasons

Tom Brady’s football career traced an arc that bordered on mythical, his ascent from sixth-round N.F.L. draft pick to seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and global celebrity. And it has ended, after more than two decades of unparalleled brilliance in his sport.

Brady, who once said that he would retire only when his performance began to decline, has decided to leave the N.F.L. still, at age 44, at the apex of his powers. He announced his retirement on Instagram on Tuesday, after leading the league, in his 22nd season, in passing yards (5,316), completions (485) and touchdowns (43) for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who lost in the divisional round of the N.F.C. playoffs to the Los Angeles Rams. He won the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay last season, after winning six championships previously with the New England Patriots.

“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 said in his Instagram post.

He added: “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’s official declaration came days after ESPN on Jan. 29 reported his departure, initiating a frenzy that was initially debunked by his father, Tom Brady Sr., and his agent, Don Yee, who in a statement said Brady alone would announce the details of his future plans. Brady himself said Monday night that he was still taking time to decide.

Brady had for years stated that he wanted to play until he was 45 years old, a benchmark for him. But on his “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray in late January, he spoke about spending more time with his wife, the supermodel Gisele Bündchen, and three children, and said he would make a decision with their input.

In recent years, Brady has been preparing for the next phase of his life, founding the health and wellness company TB12 Sports with his longtime trainer Alex Guerrero and the media company Religion of Sports and the Brady Brand clothing line. In the sort of thing one does when sensing the end approaching, he also chronicled his legacy in two television series, “Tom vs. Time” and “Man in the Arena.”

But he kept delaying retirement for so long because he loved football and he loved winning and he was excellent for more than two decades — the best, in fact — at doing both. That he finished his career with a playoff defeat seems incompatible with all the glory that preceded it.

Look again, though, at the piercing final play from that game: A 30-yard Rams field goal, the ball snapped from the Tampa Bay 12-yard line. A farewell to TB12, from the T.B. 12.

Two months after the Patriots said they were unwilling to sign Brady to a long-term contract, he fled New England for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a move that upended the N.F.L. landscape. At the time, the Buccaneers had won as many playoff games (six) as Brady had championships, but he mastered a new offense, adjusted to new teammates and coaches and dominated the league, all while the pandemic restricted in-person contact. He won his seventh title, throwing three touchdown passes in a demolition of Kansas City, last February in the Buccaneers’ home stadium.

Each of Brady’s rings proved something, in its own way. That he deserved to start over Drew Bledsoe. That his first title wasn’t by chance. That he could spearhead a dynasty. That he didn’t need deflated balls to win. That he could rebuff the commissioner, Roger Goodell, who meted out his Deflategate suspension. That the Patriots, by trading the backup Jimmy Garoppolo, had made the right decision to retain him. And finally, last year, that he didn’t need Belichick to win.

Even in capturing his last two championships, when he had to outlast Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City in matchups distilled into base terms as the best of all time against the best of this time, Brady asserted his primacy and fended off the creeping generational shift at quarterback.

So many details of Tom Brady’s career seem fanciful enough to sound apocryphal.

In 20 full seasons as a starter, he led his team to the Super Bowl 10 times. He started as many Super Bowls (three) in his 40s as he did in his 20s, when he crammed three triumphs into four seasons. His seven Super Bowl titles are more than any franchise has won. He was selected as the Super Bowl M.V.P. five times; only one other quarterback, John Elway of Denver, even started five Super Bowls. Only once has Brady missed the playoffs as a starter — in 2002, the season after winning his first Super Bowl, the championship that began the Patriots’ dynasty.

Brady’s stardom in New England incubated for years in ideal circumstances after springing from a fluke event on Sept. 23, 2001. Jets linebacker Mo Lewis knocked out Drew Bledsoe, who sheared a blood vessel in his chest, thrusting Brady into the game.

Brady formed, with Bill Belichick, the greatest quarterback-coach partnership in N.F.L. history, capitalizing on the organization’s stable infrastructure, the league’s short-passing boom and his own durability — the only games he missed because of injury came in 2008, after he tore a knee ligament in the season opener. He reveled in New England’s “Do Your Job” ethos, stifling his charismatic personality to emerge as a pocket passer extraordinaire, winning six championships and 17 division titles with the Patriots.

But even his playoff defeats were memorable. He was twice foiled in the Super Bowl by the Giants. The first time, in February 2008, thwarted New England’s bid for an unbeaten season. The second, in February 2012, prompted Bündchen, incensed by several dropped passes, to scoff afterward that her husband couldn’t throw and catch at the same time. Then, against Philadelphia six years later, Brady torched the Eagles for 505 passing yards — one of his many postseason records — but lost, 41-33, after being stripped of the ball with about two minutes remaining.

In a choreographed, nine-slide post on Instagram announcing his retirement from the N.F.L., Tom Brady thanked his family, his friends and his coaches and teammates from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

A glaring omission was obvious: He did not mention the New England Patriots, the team he spent 20 of his 22 seasons with and won six of his seven Super Bowl championships with.

It is unclear whether this was an oversight, but it is hard to imagine that this was not intentional. Near the end of his career in New England, his relationship with the organization and Coach Bill Belichick frayed.

He left in free agency in 2020 to join the Buccaneers after the Patriots were unwilling to sign him to a long-term contract because of his age. Brady’s demeanor noticeably changed, as he seemed more jovial and upbeat in news conferences, social media and other public appearances. He led Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl victory last season against Kansas City.

In Week 4 this season, in Brady’s highly-anticipated return to Foxborough, Mass., as a visiting opponent, the Buccaneers defeated the Patriots 19-17 in Gillette Stadium on “Sunday Night Football.” Afterward, Brady and Belichick shared a brief embrace at midfield, and the two met together later in the visitor’s locker room.

Hours after Brady’s retirement announcement, and after the Patriots acknowledged his retirement on social media, Brady reposted a statement from the Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft on his Instagram story, as well as on Twitter. In the post, Kraft expressed his gratitude for Brady during his time playing for the team. In response, Brady thanked the Patriots and their fan base.

“I’m beyond grateful,” Brady said. “Love you all.”

On another Instagram slide he said: “I couldn’t have dreamed of a better ride.”

The weekend before Tom Brady officially retired, speculation about his exit from football hit a crescendo with conflicting and vague reports about his plans, prompting his team to say it had not been informed of an exit and his agent and father to assert that no decision had been made.

Brady himself softened the idea of an imminent decision as recently as Monday night, saying on his “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray that he was still going through the process of making a decision. “When the time’s right, I’ll be ready to make a decision, one way or another,” he said.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington first reported that Brady would be retiring around 2:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, citing “multiple sources.” Brady’s lifestyle brand, TB12, appeared to confirm the news on Twitter minutes later, but subsequently deleted its post that reminisced about his career.

At the time of the news breaking, a representative from the Buccaneers said he was unable to confirm Brady’s retirement. Bruce Arians, the team’s head coach, told the Tampa Bay Times that Brady had not informed the organization of his plans to retire. And a league spokesman, Brian McCarthy, said the N.F.L. had not been officially informed of the retirement, even though the news was splashed on the front of NFL.com and heavily covered by the league’s social media accounts.

Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said that Brady himself would be “the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy.” Yee added: “He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well as anybody, so that should be soon.”

Yee’s statement attempted to pause the commotion, and potentially allow Brady to announce his future plans on his own terms, but the news cycle was already churning. At 4 p.m. Eastern time, Mike Silver reported for Bally Sports that Brady had contacted Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht to tell him he had not made a final decision on retirement. Bay Area news station KRON followed with a report citing Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr., as saying that his son is not retiring.

ESPN said in a statement that it stood by the reporting of Schefter and Darlington, and Schefter reiterated that position on-air later in the evening during an appearance on the network during halftime of a college basketball game.

N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, who clashed with Brady during the so-called Deflategate scandal but who last year also called him “probably the greatest player” in N.F.L. history, congratulated him in a statement Tuesday morning:

It read: “Tom Brady will be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play in the N.F.L. An incredible competitor and leader, his stellar career is remarkable for its longevity but also for the sustained excellence he displayed year after year.

“Tom made everyone around him better and always seemed to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments. His record five Super Bowl M.V.P. awards and seven Super Bowl championships set a standard that players will chase for years.

“He inspired fans in New England, Tampa and around the world with one of the greatest careers in N.F.L. history. It has been a privilege to watch him compete and have him in the N.F.L. We thank him for his many contributions to our game and wish Tom and his family all the best in the future.”

Even though the Patriots, whom Brady played with for 20 seasons, were noticeably absent from his retirement post, the team thanked Brady for his years in Foxborough.

Brady won six Super Bowls with New England, the team that drafted him with the 199th pick in 2000.

Brady had created an envied and unrivaled empire in New England with Coach Bill Belichick. The two spent decades dismantling opponents in the postseason, sometimes with shocking ease, to become the most successful head coach and quarterback pairing in N.F.L. history.

Brady left the Patriots to sign a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, however, after a season that was relatively subpar, at least according to the standards that the dynasty had created.

In addition to the team’s celebratory post about Brady’s retirement, the Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, said in a statement that he has “the greatest respect for Tom Brady and always will.”

“You didn’t have to be a Patriots fan to respect and appreciate his competitiveness, determination and will to win that fueled his success,” Kraft said.

Perhaps we should have seen football retirement coming when, earlier this year, Tom Brady unveiled “Brady brand,” his newest venture and a fully fledged line of technical apparel “that applies two decades of pro sports level innovation and engineering to create a system of clothing that performs across every activity,” according to the announcement.

This was no limited edition collaboration: it had a New York fashion week designer in the atelier (Dao-Yi Chow, formerly of Public School), a fashion entrepreneur as a partner (Jens Grede, a backer of Good American and chief executive of Skims), a group of up-and-coming athletes as models, and its own trademarked aesthetic: “Lifeletics.”

Even in a world where sports stars routinely see fashion as an ideal personal brand extension, this was taking it to the next commitment level. But then, as Robert Burke, a luxury consultant, told The Times in 2015 of Brady: “He’s looked at as part of the fashion world. He runs in that circle.”

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Or at least he has ever since he married Gisele Bündchen, the Brazilian supermodel, in 2009. Together they became regulars at the Met Gala, often coordinating their looks; in 2017, he and Bündchen were even co-chairmen, along with Pharrell Williams and Katy Perry, Brady in a Tom Ford silver velvet dinner jacket, Bündchen in gray Stella McCartney (the next year they wore matching Versace). Vogue dubbed them “the king and queen of couple style.”

Together they built an image that took Brady far beyond sports, one focused on well-being, sun-kissed beauty, and conscious consumption. One captured in all its glossy, aspirational perfection in shoots for magazines such as Architectural Digest, and that earned him brand endorsements including Ugg, Under Armor, TAG Heuer and IWC. Little wonder he’s putting all that experience into — well, play.

The time that elapsed before Tom Brady confirmed the decision on his terms reinforced the maniacal control that has governed his professional life and career. The same quarterback who castigated himself for throwing passes an inch away from his receivers — who adhered to a rigid diet and championed the virtues of muscle pliability — once trespassed in a city park in Tampa, Fla., because he needed to work out but the park was closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

His perfectionist streak, coupled with a smoldering intensity and a microprocessor of a brain, enabled a player chosen by the New England Patriots with the 199th overall pick in 2000 — the seventh quarterback selected that year — to retire with three league Most Valuable Player Awards and as the N.F.L.’s career leader in touchdown passes, passing yardage and victories.

Brady piled onto those marks this season, when he threw for the most yards of his career. Instead of hobbling around on battered knees, with a wrinkled visage and a cranky shoulder, Brady danced around the pocket and rushed for his most yards in a decade, shattering the stereotype of an older quarterback and redefining what feels possible for aging athletes.

Only six quarterbacks before Brady, according to Sports Reference’s Stathead database, had even attempted one pass after turning 42. Combined, those quarterbacks — George Blanda, Steve DeBerg, Doug Flutie, Warren Moon, Earl Morrall and Vinny Testaverde — threw for 37 touchdown passes at 42 or older. Brady, in his first season with the Buccaneers, in 2020, threw 40.

The crowning achievement for Brady may have come at the end of the 2016 season, when he completed his nationwide tour of vengeance by overcoming a 25-point third-quarter deficit to stun the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. He had started that season with a four-game suspension for his role in a cheating scandal known as Deflategate, a spat about underinflated footballs meant to give him an advantage throwing the ball that devolved into circular arguments — played out in federal court, no less — about N.F.L. power dynamics and the philosophical underpinnings of the Patriots’ dynasty.

That championship, like so many other moments, reaffirmed Brady’s enduring belief in himself. Every team, including New England, bypassed him multiple times during the 2000 draft, and Brady was so distraught that no one had taken him in earlier rounds that he left his California home to take a walk.

A few weeks after the Patriots selected him, the team’s owner, Robert K. Kraft, encountered Brady not far from his office. Brady introduced himself to Kraft, who said he knew that he was their sixth-round pick from the University of Michigan.

“That’s right,” Brady replied, in Kraft’s retelling. “And I’m the best decision this organization has ever made.”

And he was, becoming perhaps the most beloved athlete in Boston sports history. But in August 2019, on the eve of his 20th year in New England and two days after turning 42, Brady agreed to a new contract that would make him a free agent after the season. His final pass as a Patriot, in a home wild-card round defeat to the Tennessee Titans, was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March 2020, fleeing one of the N.F.L.’s most successful organizations for one of its least, and all he did was win them a championship in his first season.

In his second season — and last after 22 for his career — Brady delivered Tampa Bay a division title, its first in 14 years.

The Glazer family, which owns the Buccaneers, said in a statement that Brady arrived with “an unprecedented level of expectations and delivered some of the most memorable moments in our franchise history.”

The team’s general manager, Jason Licht, scouted for New England in 2000 when the Patriots drafted Brady.

“I have had the distinct pleasure of being with Tom at both the beginning and end of his incredible NFL career,” Licht said. “These past two seasons, I had the privilege to see up close the way he operates and the impact he has on a franchise — from coaches to players to staff. He set a standard for accountability, work ethic and performance that resonated through our building and in our locker room. His list of career accomplishments speaks for itself, but to finish a 22-year career while still performing at his peak, was nothing short of extraordinary. I wish we had more time with Tom, but I understand and respect his decision to leave the game in order to spend more time with his family. I am grateful for the moments we shared.”

Beyond the Super Bowl victory itself, those on-field moments include winning three consecutive playoff games on the road last season — defeating Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers — and beating the Patriots, his former team, in New England in October. This season, Brady joined Brees and Peyton Manning as the only players since 1991 to lead the league in passing yards, touchdowns, completions and attempts.

“Tom joined us as the greatest football player of all time, and he quickly showed everyone in our organization what that meant,” Coach Bruce Arians said. “He set a standard and helped create a culture that took our team to the mountaintop. It has been an honor to be his head coach for the past two seasons. I wish it didn’t have to end, but few players have the opportunity to leave the game on their own terms. Even fewer can do it while playing at an elite level. Tom is the exception.”