Tom Brady announces: ‘I’m quitting’

Tom Brady, the most successful football player in National Football League (NFL) history, is retiring. Exactly one year after his first retirement, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback finally declared his career over. “I’m quitting forever,” Brady said in a 53-second video posted to Twitter on Wednesday (see below).

He is the record holder with seven Super Bowl victories, and the 45-year-old also has numerous other records.

“Thank you for allowing me to live my absolute dream,” said the Californian. Then his voice faltered. A good two weeks ago, Brady was eliminated in the NFL play-off with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Dallas Cowboys 14:31.

On February 1, 2022, Brady made the same announcement, but then 40 days later said he would continue after all. The Californian spent 20 years with the New England Patriots before moving to Florida in 2020. With the “Bucs” he won his last Super Bowl in 2021. His decision is final, he now emphasized. “I know it was a pretty big deal last time.”

A long list of records

US media had recently speculated about the end of his career, but a change to another team also seemed possible. He is now denied the hoped-for eighth Super Bowl triumph, no other active professional in the NFL has more than three.

Brady is also the quarterback with most NFL wins (251), most touchdowns (649), most pass attempts (12,050), most successful passes (7,753), and most pass yards (89,214). All figures relate to regular season games only.

At the beginning of his career, no one had predicted such a career: As an unremarkable, athletically below-average quarterback from the University of Michigan, Brady was selected by the Patriots in the sixth round as number 199 in the 2000 NFL draft.