Tom Brady is not human. He’s especially freakishly un-human when it comes to postseason football. Convince us otherwise.
Humans, even elite professional athletes, are a fallible lot. We grow slower and less physically effective as we age. Sure, 40 is still young in the grand scheme of life, and many mere humans are in their best shape ever at this age. But a football player at 40 is an absolute dinosaur for all intents and purposes.
Brady is 41. He’s in his 19th NFL season and just commandeered the New England Patriots into the 2019 Super Bowl after besting the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship on January 20, an outcome accurately predicted by the latest NFL odds.
This is likely far from Brady’s final act. He wants to play until he’s 45. That’s a lofty goal but split the difference and he still retires at 42 or 43.
Again, not human. No one does this.
At least not for a long time. Brady is currently the oldest starting quarterback the NFL has seen in 20 years — Hall-of-Famer Warren Moon was 42 in 1998 as the starting gunslinger for the Seattle Seahawks.
Twenty years ago was a completely different era in the NFL. Teams now churn through players at ever increasing speeds. The length of the average NFL career has been in decline for years, presently standing at 3.3 years according to the NFL Players Association.
Even without doing the homework, given Brady’s talent and tenure, it’s safe to assume the man holds a number of NFL quarterback records. Indeed, he does. Let’s take a look behind a few of Tom Touchdown’s all-time marks.
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So Many Games, So Many Wins
Taking into account the regular season and Brady’s numerous playoff appearances—he’s entering his ninth Super Bowl, and he’s won five, both records—he owns the most career wins of any QB with 236. That’s 207 in regular season games and 29 in the postseason. As you might have guessed, those are both record numbers.
Of course, it takes a lot of passing as a QB to post so many wins. Brady tops the all-time regular season lists in most passing touchdowns (517), most passing yards (70,514), and most touchdowns thrown to different receivers (71).
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Photo by Keith Allison / CC BY-SA 2.0[/credit]
The Prince of the Post Season
Let’s concern ourselves for a moment with Brady’s accomplishments that begin when the regular season ends. NFL history is littered with star QBs who performed admirably for years but stepped away from the game with little postseason experience.
Such guys are not Tom Terrific’s cohort.
Since joining the Patriots as a rookie in 2000, New England has soldiered to the playoffs in all but three years. In addition to the highwater mark for most postseason wins, this unprecedented string of success gives Brady NFL records for most division titles (16), most playoff touchdown passes (73), and most playoff passing yards (10,917).
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The Super Bowl Samurai
There’s an old expression that says, “to the victor go the spoils.” And Brady is spoiled rotten when it comes to Super Bowl records.
There are the nine times he’s secured a spot in the big game. He’s proven the victor a record five of those times with a chance to add a sixth in 2019. Brady was named the Super Bowl MVP in four of his wins, an unparalleled feat.
Once again, you don’t notch those results as a QB without doing a lot of passing. Brady also owns Super Bowl records for most touchdown passes (18) and passing yards (2,576).
As Super Bowl 2019 fever reaches full pitch, we’re more convinced than ever that Tom Brady is of another species. It’s simply the only logical conclusion when looking at this staggering career output. We football loving humans are just fortunate to be along for the ride.
Brady and the Patriots bump up against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday, February 2.
