Patriots: Everything about Tom Brady’s 2005 ‘Baby Goat’ article aged well

The New England Patriots enduring their worst season in two decades was only exacerbated by the fact that former quarterback Tom Brady won a championship (and in dominant fashion) in his first season away from the franchise.

While that feat wasn’t a great optic for the Patriots from an organizational standpoint, it served as an excellent distraction for the fan base, which had obviously grown accustomed to watching their favorite team compete in the Super Bowl seemingly every other season for the last 20 years.

And it…it kind of felt like another one for our guys, didn’t it?

Brady clearly played in an instrumental role in New England’s dynasty, and it’s absolutely mind-boggling to see how far he’s come as a passer since the early stages of his career, when he was more of a game manager and carried by some excellent defenses.

By 2005, the three-time MVP already had three rings under his belt, which prompted the media to start questioning if he could one day end up the greatest football player of all time.

No moment better encapsulated this sentiment better than his GQ cover photo in which he was cradling a baby goat.

In truly brilliant fashion, Brady decided to remind his Twitter followers of this famous snapshot this week after he came across a throwback photo tweeted out by pop icon Justin Bieber.

Former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s ‘Baby Goat’ article could not have aged more perfectly.

Talk about dropping a pertinent reminder that Brady ended up exceeding even the most outlandish of expectations analysts set for him back in 2005.

The title of that now-legendary GQ article read “The Best There Ever Was,” but nobody could have ever anticipated the now-43-year-old quarterback appearing in six more (!) Super Bowls and winning an impossible four more since that photo was unearthed.

What also contributes to the spectacle of this throwback photo is the fact that GQ publishers never would have predicted Brady still playing in the league, let alone at an elite level, a whopping 15 years after the cover story debuted.

Back then, they (and probably every rational football fan) presumed he would’ve taken a front office or broadcasting job of some sort by the year 2020.

Or, uh…running for office! Which could definitely still happen!

As if we needed any more reason to applaud Brady’s ascension to the universally recognized GOAT football player, right?

Not many athletes in sports history can say they’ve managed to live up to such mammoth expectations, and the fact that Brady’s cleared them in street shoes with two or three years of his career still left to play really makes you wonder if anyone will end up challenging his legacy.

After all, Brady’s fresh off disposing of Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback many analysts prematurely declared next up in terms of threatening his GOAT status, in Super Bowl LV to capture his record-setting seventh championship.

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