Evidently, they wanted him to retire ‘gracefully.’ But he still wants to play … anywhere.
When it comes to NFL players, Tom Brady is the undisputed GOAT. And, even at 42, he remains at the top of his game.
But when it comes to why his team, the New England Patriots, is the most successful in league history, arguments abound. They generally fall into two camps:
- Without Tom Brady at quarterback, the Patriots would’ve been lucky to make it to the playoffs.
- Without Bill Belichick as coach, the Patriots would’ve been lucky to make it to the playoffs.
For the record, with Brady and Belichick, the Patriots won 6 Super Bowls in 9 appearances during their 20-year reign. But nobody can deny that the following had a lot to do with their unparalleled success:
Brady has frequently taken contract extensions and restructured his deals to help the New England Patriots address other spots on the roster, giving up at least $60 million over the course of his career.
(Business Insider, January 13, 2019)
Remarkably, he stands out in this respect across all professional sports. But, arguably, Belichick deserves credit for prevailing upon Brady to make that sacrifice time and again for the sake of the team.
Whatever the case, anyone who knows anything about the NFL could be forgiven this expectation:
- If any team owes any player unconditional loyalty, that team is the New England Patriots and that player is Tom Brady.
Yet the following announcement shocked the wide world of sports yesterday almost as much as the announcement of Kobe Bryant’s death did seven weeks ago:
Tom Brady said goodbye to the New England Patriots in a series of posts on Instagram on Tuesday, ending his 20-year run with the only NFL team he has ever known. …
In recent years, Brady repeatedly said that his goal was to play until he was 45, but he and the Patriots couldn’t come to an agreement on a contract extension last offseason.
(ESPN, March 17, 2020)
Trust me, no matter how gracious his public statements, Brady must be seething with regret and resentment. Another allusion to Kobe might explain why and help put this Patriots breakup into perspective:
Kobe was one of those rare players in modern sports to spend his entire career with one team, the Los Angeles Lakers. Coincidentally, that turned out to be for 20 years. But imagine the shock if the Lakers had released Kobe after 18, citing a failure “to come to an agreement on a contract extension.”
Further, imagine the dismay if that then forced Kobe to end his career playing for a team like the New York Knicks. If that had happened, I assure you fans would not have looked to the Lakers to memorialize his death the way they did.
In fact, far from even contemplating releasing Kobe after 18 years, the Lakers granted him a 2-year, $48-million extension. And they did so despite Kobe, unlike Brady, being far from the top of his game. As it happened, I commented on him playing like a wobbly, hobbling, shadow of himself in “Wither Kobe Bryant,” March 13, 2014, and “Endgame for Kobe Bryant,” January 28, 2015.
But, apropos of Kobe’s sudden death, Brady’s timing is proving fortuitous in a macabre way. The only thing more surreal than him leaving the Patriots is the coronavirus forcing the cancelation of all live sporting events. But the result is that the wide world of sports is dedicating more media coverage to mourning over his departure from the Patriots than it did to Kobe’s departure from the earth.
In any event, this breakup between Brady and the Patriots came as no surprise to me. Because I decried and presaged this kind of disloyalty in professional sports becoming customary practice over eight years ago in “WTF: Colts Release Peyton Manning?!” March 10, 2012:
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Is there any wonder there’s no team loyalty left in professional sports? Hell, the Indianapolis Colts got rid of Peyton Manning. This, despite all he did not just for the team but for the city as well.
Therefore, one can hardly blame baseball’s Albert Pujols for ignoring loyalty to the St. Louis Cardinals to sign with the team that offered him the most money. Think also of basketball’s Chicago Bulls getting rid of Michael Jordan or football’s Green Bay Packers getting rid of Brett Favre. …
In this case, despite his emotional tributes, the owner of the Colts made clear during his farewell to Peyton that professional sports is all business. Accordingly, here are the factors that I suspect led him to this decision:
- Peyton missed all of last season due to a series of neck surgeries.
- Doctors may have given him a clean bill of health but he’s now a relatively old 36.
- Not releasing him would mean having to pay him a $28-million bonus.
- Releasing him would mean being able to draft a top quarterback (Andrew Luck of Stanford) and begin rebuilding under him this year.
The bottom line, though, is that any owner would rather have a younger player for less than half the price – loyalty be damned. But it’s worth highlighting that Peyton gave the Colts 14 years of service during which he raised the team’s market value by over $200 million, got the city to build it a new stadium, and took it to the Super Bowl twice (winning it all in 2007).
This in part is why that farewell press conference was so surreal. Because Peyton made clear his determination to continue playing, which conjured up images of a thoroughbred racehorse bucking against being retired to a stud farm. Indeed, nothing indicates how impressive he remains quite like the Denver Broncos being first in line to solicit his services. Which of course betrays just how little loyalty the Broncos have to its over-hyped quarterback Tim “tebowing” Tebow.
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Of course, Brady’s consolation (or challenge as the case might be) is that Manning went on to become the first player in NFL history to lead two teams to Super Bowl victories: he led the Denver Bronco in 2016, which came 9 years after he led the Indianapolis Colts in 2007.
Good luck (with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?), Tom!
Related commentaries:
Kobe Bryant dead…
Bryant endgame…
WTF: Colts release Manning…
Patriots dynasty…
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