For the first time in his career, Tom Brady looked defeated on Sunday afternoon. Brady has suffered plenty of losses over his 23-year career – 77, to be exact – but this one felt different.
Since Brady arrived in 2020, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been one of the most dominant teams in the NFL. In his first season, the Buccaneers went 11-5 before turning it on to win the Super Bowl. Last year, the Bucs went 13-4 before falling in the playoffs to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
When Brady lost, there was always a feeling of He’ll be back. But this time, we’re not so sure.
The Buccaneers were 13-point favorites coming into a game against the Carolina Panthers, who had just initiated a fire sale by trading Christian McCaffrey and kicking Robbie Anderson off the team. They were starting former XFL superstar P.J. Walker at quarterback and had fired their head coach two weeks ago.
Carolina was the type of team that Brady would smash over three quarters and spend the last one on the sideline brooding over what little things went wrong in the blowout victory. Even at 3-3, there was no way the Buccaneers could lose this game…that is, until Sunday.
The Panthers didn’t just beat the Buccaneers; they hammered them. Tampa Bay had just 322 yards on offense, most of which came in the fourth quarter. The Carolina defense shut out Tampa Bay – who ranked second in scoring last season – until Ryan Succop‘s field goal with 13:38 left in the game.
At some point, the quarterback who once fought back from a 28-3 deficit in the Super Bowl would wake up and put this team away, right? But, no, Brady whimpered quietly into the afternoon and left Charlotte crestfallen.
This kind of moment has rarely been seen in NFL history. However, Johnny Unitas spent his final season with the San Diego Chargers. Joe Namath did a similar misery tour with the Los Angeles Rams. Joe Montana spent two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, and Matt Ryan may be having his own ceremonial farewell with the Indianapolis Colts.
But Brady’s case may be different because it feels a lot like Brett Favre’s final season with the Minnesota Vikings.
Like Brady, Favre’s arrival in Minnesota was shocking. He was the face of an organization and the greatest quarterback to ever suit up for it. Everything about Favre was linked to the Green Bay Packers despite a one-year detour with the New York Jets. But that led him to the Vikings.
From the second Favre got off the Wilf family’s private jet, the Vikings enjoyed immediate success. Favre led Minnesota to a 12-4 record and all the way to the NFC Championship game before losing to the New Orleans Saints. Even with the loss, the Vikings thought they had one more run in them and needed Favre to get them there.
The problem was that Favre’s heart just wasn’t in it. The Saints decimated Favre in the NFC Championship game as part of a bounty scandal, and the man who had the longest starting streak in the NFL was finally beginning to tap out. After recovering from an ankle injury, Favre was set to fade off into his Mississippi property and embezzle millions of…I mean…wear Wranglers and play with his dog.
That was until the Vikings brought him back.
Jared Allen, Steve Hutchinson, and Ryan Longwell boarded a plane to Hattiesburg, Miss. The next thing you knew, Favre was on his way back to Minnesota. Only this time, things didn’t go as planned.
The supporting cast that had helped Favre reach the title game had started to erode. Sidney Rice became Favre’s favorite target in 2009 but delayed hip surgery as he pursued a new contract. The Vikings didn’t budge, and Rice was limited to just six games and was never the same player.
The Vikings tried to adjust by trading for Randy Moss, but he was also on the tail end of his career. His impact on Percy Harvin effectively limited his time in Minnesota after Brad Childress had a power trip. By Week 12, the Vikings fired Childress even though he signed an extension before the season.
There are other things that we can point to as reasons why the 2010 season went wrong. The biggest was Favre’s decline, though. He went 5-8 as a starter and tossed 11 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. After years of being indestructible, the end finally arrived when Arthur Moats slammed him into the turf during a win over the Buffalo Bills.
Favre sat out the following week but returned for a meaningless game against the Chicago Bears. The game was also being played at Huntington Bank Stadium after the Metrodome roof had collapsed. With the stadium made to be played in only until the Gophers finished their season in November, there were no heating coils underneath the playing surface to keep the ground soft.
When Corey Wootton drove Favre into the turf, he basically slammed him into a block of ice, knocking him unconscious. Unfortunately, that was the last picture of Favre on a football field. Cold, woozy, and playing one more year than he should have.
Fortunately, it’s unlikely that Brady is set to suffer the exact same fate. But he could face the same ignominious entry into retirement because the Buccaneers are not the same team he joined a couple of years ago.
For starters, his supporting cast has begun to crumble around him. Tampa lured Rob Gronkowski out of retirement to join Brady, but he has since gone back to riding shotgun with Russell Wilson in Subway’s ad campaigns.
Chris Godwin went from a promising young receiver to a reclamation project after tearing his ACL. Mike Evans is approaching 30. Antonio Brown lost his mind. Ali Marpet retired. Cole Beasley lasted two weeks. Nothing is working, and it’s only the beginning.
Much like Favre, Brady also ran his coach out of town. Bruce Arians and Brady might not have seen eye to eye, but it was complimentary enough to work. When the Buccaneers lost in the divisional round, Brady’s power play was to threaten retirement until Arians retired first and put Todd Bowles in charge.
Bowles is far from incompetent, but he’s not the offensive mastermind that Arians is. The offense has gone in the tank, and Brady’s effectiveness has suffered.
It’s not like Brady hasn’t dealt with this before. But, like Favre in 2010, it doesn’t feel like he’s coming back. Not with the roster falling apart. Not with a head coach who was last seen failing with the New York Jets. And not with his supermodel wife filing for a divorce.
If you don’t believe that, ask the man himself.
“I’m 45 years old, man,” Brady said after taking a two-week vacation during training camp. “There’s a lot of shit going on.”
That’s probably an understatement, but it’s also what Favre could have been thinking in the final moments of his career. Brady’s had a great run. He’s one of, if not the best quarterbacks of all time. But while Peyton Manning and John Elway knew when to get out, Brady and Favre chose to embark on a forgettable farewell.
