Age is Only a Number

Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to
victory in Super Bowl LVII (CBS Sports)

Today is 2-2-22, which would be trivial, except that mark on the calendar made me think how I'll need some luck to make it to 3-3-33 and a lot of good fortune to be here when 4-4-44 rolls around. Age makes one more reflective.

Speaking of reflection, Tom Brady mused on life, family, and football after the Bucs lost in the playoffs last week. To little surprise he retired from professional football yesterday. It seems like he's been around forever, but his entire NFL career took place in the 21st century.

The span of his career is outrageous. There are plenty of Brady fans—plenty of recent teammates, too—who don’t remember the Michigan platoons, his flabby combine, the draft day demotion, the Drew Bledsoe injury succession, or the iffy Tuck Rule versus the Raiders in the snow. Lots of fans hopped aboard the Brady Experience along the way. Just as there are older Brady fans from New England who can recall the grisly, pre-Brady, pre-Belichick, pre-Bledsoe wilderness, there are young Bucs fans who will remember Brady strictly in pirate flags and pewter.

With his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen, three handsome kids (the first with actress Bridget Moynahan), hundreds of $millions earned from football, retirement relatively uninjured at the top of his game, universally admired and recognized, Tom Brady embodies the American dream: a man from humble beginnings, continually underestimated, who worked harder than anyone else and achieved unmatched greatness in his chosen profession.

Athletes are never as famous or accomplished after retirement, but don't bet against Tom Brady. The good news for me is that, if I do make it to 4-4-44, I get to watch him do it.