Tom Brady has outlived Luke Skywalker. Just one of 43 facts about the GOAT quarterback
Everything you are about to read is true, even if, at times, you may think that what you’re reading cannot be possible. The topic is Tom Brady, so everything is in play.
Let’s set the table. Brady is the 43-year-old quarterback who plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and they will be taking on the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and the game’s reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LV on Sunday night.
Here are 43 facts about the man’s 43 years on this earth.
1. Tom Brady was born on Aug. 3, 1977. Patrick Mahomes’ father, former Texas Rangers pitcher Pat Mahomes, was born just about seven years prior, on Aug. 9, 1970.
2. Brady’s first NFL game was Nov. 23, 2000, against the Detroit Lions when Patrick Mahomes was 5 years old.
3. Tom Brady’s college teammate at Michigan in 1995 was offensive lineman Jon Runyan. This season, Brady’s Bucs played against Runyan’s son, Jon Runyan Jr. of the Green Bay Packers.
4. Kansas City running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire will be the youngest player to play in Super Bowl LV. He was born on Saturday, April 11, 1999. Tom Brady was drafted by the Patriots exactly 53 weeks later, on Saturday, April 16, 2000.
5. Tom Brady has six Super Bowl rings. The Chiefs and Bucs have three Super Bowl rings combined.
6. Tom Brady has 33 career playoff wins, more than double the Chiefs’ 15 franchise playoff win total.
7. Tom Brady has 11 playoff losses. Before this season, the Bucs were 6-9 in their collective playoff history.
8. Tom Brady was the 199th selection in the 2000 NFL Draft. O
9. Six quarterbacks were selected before Brady in the 2000 NFL Draft: Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger, Spergon Wynn. (Did you know, one of these six has a Super Bowl ring? Read on to find out who.)
10. Before this season, Tom Brady had thrown 171 career interceptions. The previous six had thrown a combined 179 interceptions, even though Brady had attempted 3,065 more passes than that group. (But Chris Redman will always have his Super Bowl ring he earned while backing up Trent Dilfer on the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.)
11. Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich started at QB for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Dec. 14, 2003 against Tom Brady’s Patriots. Pats 27, Jags 13.
12. Patrick Mahomes has 14,152 career passing yards. He needs only 65,052 more to catch Tom Brady, assuming Brady retires.
13. Tom Brady’s worst NFL record as a starting QB was when the Patriots finished 9-7 in 2002. He has never had a losing season as the starter.
14. From Week 15 of the 2006 season to Week 1 of the 2009 season, Tom Brady won 21 consecutive regular-season starts.
15. In 1997, Tom Brady was on the Michigan Wolverines team that won the national title — as the backup.
16. The last quarterbacks Tom Brady played behind were Drew Bledsoe in 2000 while with the Patriots and Brian Griese in 1997 at Michigan.
17. Tom Brady has thrown touchdown passes to 77 different receivers.
18. Tom Brady has won the Super Bowl six times in his first 20 seasons. The Titans, Chargers, Vikings, Jaguars, Texans, Lions, Browns, Bengals, Panthers, Bills, Falcons and Cardinals franchises have never won one Super Bowl.
19. This will be the 10th time Tom Brady has played in a Super Bowl. The Browns, Lions, Jaguars and Texans have never played in a single one.
20. Tom Brady has been named the Super Bowl MVP four times. The next closest player is San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, who won the award three times.
21. In Tom Brady’s first NFL season in 2000, the Patriots finished 5-11; the Bucs were 10-6. Fast forward 20 years, New England just had its first losing record since then, and Tampa Bay has just posted a double-digit win total for the first time since 2010.
22. Tom Brady has won at least 10 games in 18 different NFL seasons. Since Brady came into the league, the Texans, Bengals, Lions and Jets combined have won 10 games in a season 17 times.
23. Back in April, a couple of weeks after signing with the Bucs, Tom Brady goes the meet the team’s offensive coordinator, Byron Leftwich, at his house for the first time. Brady just knocks on the door and walks in, only to realize that it was not Leftwich’s house.
24. Tom Brady has lost three Super Bowls. The Vikings, Bills, Bengals, Panthers, Chargers, Falcons, Titans and Cardinals are a combined 0-15 in Super Bowls, and Brady was the victor in two of those defeats. He beat the Panthers in 2004 and the Falcons in 2017.
25. Of Tom Brady’s nine Super Bowl games, only one has been decided by double digits. The Patriots defeated the Rams, 13-3, in 2019.
26. Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa Bay, has suggested that she might be open to renaming the town “Tompa Bay” should a certain someone lead the Buccaneers to a victory in Super Bowl LV.
27. When Tom Brady was born the President of the United States was Jimmy Carter. Like Brady, Carter, now 96, shows no signs of slowing down
28. Tom Brady’s team has been the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl seven times, and his team is 2-5 in those games. The Patriots covered the 2-point spread against the Rams in Super Bowl LIII, and their overtime touchdown against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI covered the 3-point spread.
29. The year Tom Brady was born, 1977, the movie Star Wars was released. By the end of 2019, all of the main human characters of the saga’s original film had “become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
30. Tom Brady was born the same year Elvis Presley “died.”
31. The year Tom Brady was born the U.S. population was 216 million. Today, it’s 331 million.
32. In 1977, the Record of the Year was “Hotel California” by the Eagles. Of the band’s original four members, Don Henley is still an Eagle.
33. Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid’s first Super Bowl appearance was 2005, when his Philadelphia Eagles lost 24-21 ... to Tom Brady.
34. The first defensive coordinator to beat Tom Brady in a Super Bowl was Steve Spagnuolo, when he was with the New York Giants team that prevented the Patriots from completing a 19-0 season in 2007. Spagnuolo is now the defensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs.
35. Tom Brady is second in NFL history with 79,204 yards passing. If he plays next season, he will pass Drew Brees’ 80,358. The next closest active quarterbacks are Ben Roethlisberger (60,348), Matt Ryan (55,767) and Aaron Rodgers (51,245).
36. Tom Brady’s guaranteed money in his rookie contract was his signing bonus, $38,500; in today’s dollars, that would be $57,864. The two-year contract he signed in 2020 to join the Bucs was $50 million guaranteed.
37. Other than his rookie season, when he played one game, and the 2008 season where he sustained a season ending injury in Week 1, Tom Brady has completed at least 60.2 percent of his passes every year.
38. Tom Brady has thrown 40 or more touchdown passes twice in his career — 2007, when he threw 50, and 2020, when he threw 40 ... at the age of 43.
39. Tom Brady is a 1,000-yard rusher. In 21 seasons, he’s rushed for a total of 1,043 yards.
40. As a regular-season receiver, Tom Brady has been targeted three times and has three catches with two first downs, a career-long of 36 yards, but zero touchdowns. (He did have a big drop in Super Bowl LII against the Eagles.)
41. Tom Brady has one son with ex-model and actor Bridget Moynahan. He has two children with his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen.
42. Since Tom Brady arrived in Boston in 2000, all four of its pro teams won titles. The Celtics snapped a 21-year title drought with an NBA title in 2008, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011 to end their 39-year string; and the Red Sox ended The Curse of the Bambino by winning the World Series in 2004, their first title in 86 years.
43. Every one of Tampa Bay’s major pro sports teams have reached their most recent championship. The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in September. The Tampa Rays reached the World Series in October. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will appear in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Maybe you’ve heard. They’ve got this 43-year-old quarterback by the name Tom Brady ...
This story was originally published February 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
