Tom Brady justifiably trolls Max Kellerman with ball velocity

In a not-so-subtle nod to ESPN host Max Kellerman predicting he’d “fall of a cliff,” Tom Brady proved he can still put plenty of zip on his football throws.

About five weeks from now, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will turn 42 years old. By today’s life expectancy standards in America, that makes him just about middle-aged. By today’s NFL standards, though, he’ll practically have one foot in the grave.

And yet, Brady has hitherto showed no obvious signs of slowing down. He’s played in three straight 19-game seasons now, won two out of three Super Bowls, and appears just as hungry and motivated as ever to claim Lombardi No. 7.

Despite Brady’s competitive fire and stellar on-field performance though, he still has a growing crowd of detractors. It’s become something of a ritualistic pastime at this point for critics, sportscasters, analysts, and barstool/sofa sleeper quarterbacks to try and take a stab at when Brady will eventually lose out to Father Time, crumble into a shell of his former self like so many other great quarterbacks before him, and finally be forced to retire from the game he loves so much.

Never mind that he’s already proven he’s the exception to the rule. Forget the fact that Brady’s long since bucked the thinking that injury and subsequent lengthy recovery are just another standard aspect of an athlete’s career path. Completely disregard that this man has eviscerated all conventional wisdom about football players, and that he’s already rewritten the record books in just about every major category at this point.

No, none of that matters if you’re someone like ESPN’s Max Kellerman, who for years now has been prognosticating Brady’s fall from grace as being not just imminent, but perhaps already occurring right before our eyes. Kellerman has previously said on the air that Brady will “fall off a cliff” and “be a bum in short order,” amongst many other slanderous comments.

Kellerman certainly has a right to his opinion. He may be an avid New York sports fan (not that he’s biased at all, of course not, no way…), but he’s also a respected television host on one of ESPN’s premier programs: “First Take.”

Unfortunately for Kellerman though – and for all those other doubters and haters – Brady still doesn’t seem anywhere near falling off a cliff. He may be cliff-diving on his vacations in exotic countries for the adrenaline rush, but when he goes to work on the football field, he’s about as far away from the proverbial cliff’s edge as Kellerman is from wearing a Patriots onesie on the air.

In fact, Brady shared an image on his Instagram Thursday that proved just that, via Yahoo Sports’ Shalise Manza Young. It’s a Pocket Radar ball coach (that measures football velocity through the air), and the number on the screen reads 61 miles per hour. The caption reads, “He’s Gonna Fall Off a Cliff” with two emojis: a football and the thinking, ponderous, skeptical face.

Brady’s message is clear: if he’s still throwing 61 MPH (just 1 MPH slower than Patrick Mahomes notably threw before the 2017 NFL Draft), than what business does Kellerman or anyone else have saying he’s too old, too weak, or too slow to still be winning football games with his arm?