On Feb. 1, 2023, Tom Brady officially announced his retirement on his Instagram. Regarded as the greatest to ever play the game of football, Tom Brady has left his mark on the game and his story is truly inspiring. He leaves behind a legacy that will be untouched for years to come. To honor his career and his contribution to the game of football, let’s take a step back and look at his incredible journey to become the greatest of all time.

On Jan. 1, 2000, Brady played his last collegiate football game at Michigan, winning against Alabama in the Orange Bowl.

On Apr. 16, 2000, Brady was drafted to the New England Patriots with pick 199.

His career began by accident, when starting Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe went down with an injury during the 4th quarter on Sep. 23, 2001. The next Sunday, Tom Brady would start his first NFL game. His performance in that game earned him American Football Conference (AFC) offensive player of the week, the first of many accolades in his career.

That same season, Brady led the Patriots to the Super Bowl where they played the St. Louis Rams led by legendary quarterback Kurt Warner. The Patriots won the Super Bowl and Tom Brady was named Super Bowl MVP after setting up the game winning field goal.

The following season, Brady signed a four year, $29.625 million dollar contract with the Patriots.

Over the next three seasons, Brady won two more Super Bowls The first was against the Carolina Panthers in 2004, where he won his second Super Bowl MVP.  The second was against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2005, and he broke the NFL record for most consecutive playoff wins (10).

In 2007-2008, Tom Brady had a near perfect season. He won his first NFL MVP award and his team went undefeated (16-0) in the regular season. Their only loss wasn’t until the superbowl, where Brady lost  to Eli Manning and the New York Giants. He set the NFL record for pass completion percentage, with a 92.9 percent.

Tragedy struck the next season as Brady suffered a season ending injury tearing his ACL and MCL in the season opener.

In the 2009-2010 season, Brady would bounce back from his injuries and win the NFL comeback player of the year. He also became the Patriots all time leader in passing yards.

On Sep. 9, 2010, Brady got in a car accident on the way to practice. Brady being the force of nature he is, was uninjured and proceeded to sign a four year, $72 million dollar contract with the Patriots just hours after the initial crash.

Between 2011 and 2015, Brady won his second NFL MVP award and went to the Super Bowl twice. Brady and his team lost again to the Giants in 2012 but won against the Seattle Seahawks in 2015. In his Super Bowl win against the Seahawks, Brady won his third super bowl MVP award.

In May of 2015, Brady was given a four game suspension in his role in the deflategate scandal, which, according to NBC, claimed that Brady and the Patriots were deflating footballs in order to have an advantage at home during the 2015 AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.

Following the conclusion of the deflategate scandal, on Feb. 5, 2017, Brady and the Patriots completed the greatest Super Bowl comeback of all time, coming back from being down 28-3 in the late third quarter to win the game 34-28 in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons. He also won his fourth Super Bowl MVP award in this game.

In the 2017-2018 season, Brady won his third NFL MVP award and he led the patriots back to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Eagles. In that game, he broke the single-game passing record in a playoff game, with 505 yards passing, completing 28 of 48 passes in their loss.

In the 2018-2019 season, Brady returned to the super bowl once again and in arguably the most boring Super Bowl in recent history, beat the Los Angeles Rams. That was the last Super Bowl he played as a Patriot and that win gave him his sixth Super Bowl win.

In the 2019-2020 season, Brady lost in the playoffs prematurely to the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round.

Later in 2020, Brady announced that he was leaving the Patriots, but not planning on retiring in a social media message.

Only a few days later Brady announced that he would be signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In his first season with the Buccaneers, Brady won the franchises first Super Bowl over the Kansas City Chiefs. He was awarded his fifth Super Bowl MVP, which was a new NFL record.

The next season, Brady played his first game against the Patriots, which he won of course. The same season, the Buccaneers lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams, in the NFC Championship game.

Jan. 29, 2022, rumors surrounding Tom Brady’s retirement started to spread. The rumors were shut down by Tom Brady’s dad and the Buccaneers. Only three days later, on Feb. 1, 2022, Brady officially announces his retirement. About a month later, Brady announced that he was not in fact retiring and that he would be coming back for the 2022-2023 season.

On Oct. 28, 2022, Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bündchen finalized their divorce after thirteen years of being married. Many people believed this decision to be a result of his return to the NFL.

Following a largely disappointing final season in 2022-2023 that ended in the Cowboys beating the Buccaneers in the Wildcard round of the playoffs, Brady announced his retirement again on his instagram on Feb. 1, 2023.

Throughout his twenty three  year NFL career, some of the incredible awards and records Brady earned includes: 7x Super Bowl winner (more than any other player and franchise in all of NFL history), 5x Super Bowl MVP (most by any player), wins by a starting quarterback (333), regular season passing yards (89,214), passing touchdowns (649), and many, many others. Congratulations Tom Brady on an incredible career.