The road to the Super Bowl will continue to run through New England for the foreseeable future after hearing Tom Brady’s remarks about potential retirement.
Ever since the 2001 season, his first full year as the starting quarterback in New England, Tom Brady has ruled the AFC. For those counting, that’s 18 years of general supremacy over every other team in the conference. Every now and then, another team might get the chance to appear in the Super Bowl—if Brady had an off year or, perhaps, was injured—but for the most part, Bill Belichick and Brady have enjoyed total dominance over their peers in the AFC.
Given the fact that Brady turns 42 this summer, it’d be easy to assume the Patriots starting quarterback might be moving on (and, in so doing, opening wide the doors of competition). Not so fast, says Brady. When asked by Jeff Darlington about his chances of retirement after next week’s Super Bowl, Brady gave a hard and fast answer: “Zero.”
The Kansas City Chiefs were on the brink of toppling the powers-that-be and had the Patriots on the ropes even after a sloppy first half in which the league’s best offense was shut out. Unfortunately, as it often happens against the Patriots, the Chiefs shot themselves in the foot on numerous occasions, found some frustrating flags, and generally saw their hopes dashed in the end. Once again, Tom Brady engineered a game-winning drive.
Perhaps Brady won’t think about retirement until he’s forced to consider his own football mortality—that is, until he encounters a more talented force than himself. Mahomes could very well be the one if he’s given a defense who can slow the Patriots just enough. Perhaps if Brady were the one sitting on the sideline now, he would believe the whole exercise not worth it again.
For now, any franchise who is simply biding their time waiting for the Patriots to naturally dissolve over time is going to be waiting for a while. Brady sounds like a competitive man who remains in love with the game he’s dominated for two decades. The Chiefs, like every other team, are simply going to have to go through New England to claim greatness of their own.