Line #13 Creator/TomBrady


1	[[quoteright:268:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ab51fcb20fdccd4929f95e0679f93931.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:268:The Golden Boy himself.]]
3
4	->”''This is your tenth Superbowl appearance. You're 43 years old [[OlderThanTheyLook but you look 27]]. You went to historically one of the worst franchises in football and in your first year, you took them all the way to the championship. My point is: You still work. You're supposed to win football games and you keep winning football games. [[TheAce You might be the only thing in America that still works.]]''"
5	-->--'''Creator/KateMcKinnon''' on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''
6
7	Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is a former UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball player. [[LongRunner From 2001 to 2019]], he was the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots, then moved to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the next three seasons before retiring from play. Brady is widely recognized as one of the greatest [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueQuarterbacks quarterbacks]] in [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] history, with many (even his critics and opponents) arguing that he is ''the'' greatest due to a resume of championships and career statistics that dwarf those of every other player who has played the position.[[note]]There are numerous qualifications for greatness in football, a sport where no one player is ''solely'' responsible for a victory, rules, and strategies change all the time, and many record-shattering players never win a title... but, as you'll see below, Brady's got a lot going for him.[[/note]]
8
9	After playing college football for the [[UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences University of Michigan]], Tom Brady was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. Brady [[FromNobodyToNightmare rose from obscurity]] and became the starter after perennial Pro-Bowler [[ThePeteBest Drew Bledsoe]] was injured in Week 2 of the 2001 season; he tallied an 11-3 record and won the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl that year. While this was seen at the time as one of the great underdog stories in American sports, the Patriots wouldn't remain underdogs for long. In Brady's 18 full seasons as a starter in New England (he missed nearly all of 2008 with a torn ACL), the Patriots earned nine trips to the Super Bowl and won six. Following this and a fractured relationship with coach Bill Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft that formed behind the scenes after their fifth Super Bowl win that nearly saw Brady get traded to his hometown San Francisco 49ers[[note]]The trade would eventually become the Jimmy Garoppolo trade, as Kraft wanted to continue winning with Brady[[/note]], Brady joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a long-struggling team that held the worst franchise-winning record in all North American professional sports, hadn't visited the playoffs in thirteen years, and hadn't won a playoff game since their Super Bowl victory the year after Brady's first title. In his first year with the franchise, the Buccaneers returned to the Super Bowl and soundly defeated the defending champion Chiefs as Brady won a record fifth Super Bowl MVP,[[note]]while the Patriots put up a losing record [[LoadBearingBoss for the first time since Brady started playing for them]][[/note]] an accomplishment that cemented Brady's name with UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan, UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, UsefulNotes/WayneGretzky, and Creator/BabeRuth as the greatest competitor in their respective sport. Brady was in ''half'' of all Super Bowls played during his two-decade career (ten total, five more than any other QB), holds the record for the most total Super Bowl touchdown passes, and is the first and only player to win six Super Bowls, let alone seven, which is more than any ''team'' has won in the history of the Big Game. He is only the second starting QB in history to win a title with two different teams (after [[TheRival longtime rival]] Creator/PeytonManning won with the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos) and the only one to do so in both conferences. He only missed the playoffs in a single season, 2002, and never started a single game where his team was already eliminated from the postseason.[[note]]The 2002 Patriots were eliminated through tiebreakers after the season had concluded.[[/note]] Considering his career accomplishments, he is considered the greatest draft steal in NFL history.[[note]]It also had ripple effects on how the rest of the roster was built. The No. 199 pick used to get him was in itself a compensatory selection, and a significant discount off of Brady's projected 3rd round talent (Brady had hoped prior to the draft that he'd get selected by his hometown San Francisco 49ers). His immediate success gave New England unprecedented riches at the quarterback position, allowing them to flip Drew Bledsoe for a first-round pick in 2003, used to acquire All-Pro DE and two-time champion Ty Warren.[[/note]]
10
11	Obviously, in order to win that many championships, one has to be pretty great in all of the games leading up to it, and Brady has plenty of regular-season accolades as well. He threw more career touchdown passes and accrued more passing yards than any NFL quarterback, with the nearest active runner-ups being a long distance behind him. He was named the NFL MVP in 2007 (when he became the first QB to throw for 50+ touchdowns in a season and led the Pats to a 16-0 regular season), 2010 (when he set an NFL record for consecutive passes without an interception, 358, and became the first player since 1986 to be unanimously chosen as MVP), and 2017 (when he became the oldest ever to win at age 40), as well as the 2007 Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, the first NFL player to be so honored since 1990. He was selected to more Pro Bowls than any other player (15) and won more division titles than any other QB (18). He likewise threw for more passing yards and touchdowns than any QB in NFL ''postseason'' history. His career playoff record is 37-11, a win total over ''twice'' the number of runner-up (and Brady's childhood idol) Joe Montana[[note]]Brady himself was at the NFC championship game where Joe threw The Catch, which inspired Tom to become a QB much like his idol[[/note]]. Brady helped set the record for both the longest consecutive win streak in NFL history (21 straight wins across 2003-04), most consecutive playoff wins (10)[[note]]Those 10 wins were notched before playing his first career playoff loss, another record. The previous record was 7 (Troy Aikman). Since the introduction of the salary cap and free agency in 1993, no other QB has come close to approaching Brady's start, nor has one won a Super Bowl before losing at least one career postseason game[[/note]]. At 44 years old in 2021, Brady became the oldest starting QB to win a game in the NFL, and while he continued to lead the league in many passing categories with no clear signs of slowing down, he ultimately decided to retire after the end of the season... [[TenMinuteRetirement only to announce his return not even two months later]], deciding he still had "unfinished business". While he returned to play the first overall losing season of his career, he still became the oldest QB ''period'' to make a start in the NFL, made the playoffs, and broke his own record for most completions in a season before retiring for good.
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13	Tom Brady has been a popular spokesman for several brands including Gillette, Dodge, Under Armour, Uggs, and Citizen watches. He has dabbled in acting, almost always AsHimself, notably "starring" in (and producing) the 2023 film ''Film/EightyForBrady''. He has made guest appearances on ''Series/{{Entourage}}'', ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', and ''Film/{{Ted 2}}'' (the latter two directed by Patriots Fan Creator/SethMacFarlane and the last starring frequent Patriots owner's box guest Creator/MarkWahlberg). He also had a small speaking role in ''Film/StuckOnYou'' with another Patriots megafan Creator/MattDamon. He is also on the cover of ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL 18'', which even got a ''G.O.A.T. Edition'' inspired by him, and shared a cover with Patrick Mahomes (QB, Kansas City Chiefs) for ''Madden NFL 22''.[[note]]Mahomes was also the cover athlete for ''Madden NFL 20'', and both quarterbacks played in Super Bowl LV before the game's release.[[/note]] He has signed a deal to go into the booth with FOX Sports and is slated (pending league approval) to become a minority investor in the Las Vegas Raiders (having already become one for another of Raiders owner Mark Davis' Vegas sports franchises, the WNBA's Aces, and English Football League side Birmingham City).
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15	He was in a relationship with Creator/BridgetMoynahan for two years, a union that produced a son. The two have remained AmicableExes. He married Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen in 2009 and divorced in 2022; they have a daughter and a son.
16	----
17	!!Filmography
18	!!!Films
19	* ''Film/StuckOnYou'' (2003) as Computer Geek #1
20	* ''Film/Ted2'' (2015) AsHimself
21	* ''Film/{{Entourage}}'' (2015) AsHimself
22	* ''Film/EightyForBrady'' (2023) AsHimself (also producer)
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24	!!!Television
25	* ''In the Game'' (2004; TV film) AsHimself
26	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (2005) AsHimself (episode: "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E8HomerAndNedsHailMaryPass Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass]]")
27	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' (2006) AsHimself (episode: "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS4E20PatriotGames Patriot Games]]")
28	* ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' (2009) AsHimself (episode: "Fore")
29	* ''Series/LivingWithYourself'' (2019) AsHimself (episode: "The Best You Can Be")

Context Creator / TomBrady