It’s finally official. In light of the leaks, nobody’s really that surprised this time around.

Tom Brady is now officially retired from the National Football League. He entered as an unknown sixth-round draft pick, and left as the greatest player in the history of the sport.

While it’s true that I am a New England Patriots fan (which means that I have some baseline level of brain damage to begin with), and thus my words must always be taken with a grain of salt, the above statement is still nonetheless accurate.

Tom Brady, the man, leaves a complicated legacy. From Bridget Moynahan to the MAGA hat to DeflateGate to the pseudoscience sports medicine company, I will be the first to acknowledge that his actions have, quite rightfully, drawn a lot of ire, particularly from the legions of non-Pats fans and, especially, the denizens of this website.

Tom Brady, the player, has no such complicated legacy. He’s won more Super Bowls than anybody else. He holds every single passing record in the book. He’s had a single losing season in 22 years. He routinely took the discarded castoffs of other franchises and elevated them to greatness. It’s for these reasons, and these reasons alone, why nobody will ever come close to him.

Brady is the reason why I am a football fan in the first place. As some of you know, I am the youngest contributor to this website, and my history with football fandom is naturally much shorter than so many others. I wasn’t alive for the Steve Grogan era, and naturally have no memory of the Drew Bledsoe era either. The first Super Bowl I genuinely paid attention to was between the Kurt Warner-led Rams and a rookie Tom Brady… I was nine years old. Perhaps I was, indeed, jumping on a bandwagon… but if that’s the case, I’d argue I was the very first stop on the route.

Through two decades, Tom Brady was there on TV for me. Janet Jackson’s titty. The heartbreak and despair of David Tyree and Mario Manningham. The Aaron Hernandez saga. The Malcolm Butler interception.

I changed a lot in those decades too. Grade school. High school. College. Professional music. My first real classroom of my own.

And, most notably, I got to experience 28-3.

I have never told this story before, but that Super Bowl win, courtesy of the greatest fourth quarter comeback I’ve ever seen, ends up mirroring my own life almost perfectly beginning in that year.

I’d spent the previous eighteen months in an incredibly abusive relationship, which was still going on when Brady and the Patriots took home their fifth title. A few weeks after that win, I had a nervous breakdown. Almost every single day since that relationship began was one of relentless manipulation, control and belittling – and something in me just snapped. After yet another fight, I broke down crying at midnight one night in March, and called my mom. I felt ready to die. I couldn’t see any way out.

After hastily packing up all my things from that apartment while my ex-girlfriend was out at work the next day, and blocking her phone number and email, I spent the next six months just trying to find some semblance of normalcy – and thanks to intensive therapy and some aggressive SNRIs, I regained some equilibrium. (I also thank this wonderful community for being there this entire time – the open threads and late night PokerStars games meant a lot to me during this time.)

I will never be able to thank my mom and dad enough for yet again saving me in that dark part of my life – and letting me move back in with them when I truly needed it most. Watching that Super Bowl with them, a few weeks before that breakdown, was a real light in my life in a time when I felt that the walls were closing in. The first three quarters were, of course, incredibly awful to watch… and then, against all odds, hope. And then that breakthrough. The Matt Ryan strip sack. Julian Edelman’s miracle catch. James White’s surgical OT touchdown. And through it all, tying the whole thing together, was Tom Brady at his absolute peak. The high of that win gave me a few more weeks of positive vibes to block out the negativity swirling around the rest of my life.

I am still almost always of the mindset that you should never meet your heroes. Even with his greatness on the gridiron, Tom Brady still is no exception to that mindset. Perhaps it’s better that way that Brady maintains that celebrity mystique and aura; that way, it won’t tarnish my own memories of watching him play. Tom Brady may not be the platonic ideal of who I want to be, or who I want my children to be, but I think I will still always be grateful for him providing me with some positive lessons all the same – the drive and desire to be the best in your profession, the ability to elevate the performance of those around you, and the perseverance required to push through adversity.

It’s no skin off my back for anyone else to hate Tom Brady – I understand. Hell, I’ll probably agree with you. As I’ve previously mentioned, there’s no shortage of reasons to choose from.

Tom Brady may be a flawed human being, but so am I. In the last five years, though, I think I’ve learned how to be my best self – and when I was at my absolute rock bottom, I am grateful for the fact that I had Brady, the Patriots, and 28-3 to remind me that it does get better, just so long as you’re willing to take that next step.

I don’t know what an NFL without Tom Brady is going to look like – but I know that for better or worse, the bar he’s set is not likely to be broken, ever. I’m grateful to have seen him play, and will miss watching him immensely.

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OK, time to be funny. GET TO IT, SCRUBS.

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NFL NEWS:

• Green Bay is letting special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton go. After a blocked punt and blocked field goal in their Divisional Round game against the 49ers, that’s no shocker.
• With Brian Daboll off to the New York Giants, the Buffalo Bills promoted Ken Dorsey to be their new OC.
• KC Chiefs GM Brett Veach has made it a priority to retain S Tyrann Mathieu, LT Orlando Brown, and EDGE Melvin Ingram this offseason; after the Chiefs turned around their defense after a rocky start, it’s essential they keep their defensive playmakers happy if they want to challenge for the AFC conference title again next year.

ON TV TONIGHT

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