Former Patriots’ QB Tom Brady nearly retired in his 20s

In a video posted to the TB12sports Twitter page, former Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady claimed he nearly retired when he was 27 years old.  This little tidbit of new information seems to not be getting as much attention as I thought it would.

The video posted to the Twitter page was on November 9th.  At the very beginning, future Hall of Famer Tom Brady claims that he almost retired from the NFL at 27 years old due to elbow pain.  Well, that is certainly a mini-bombshell, isn’t it?

Tom Brady was 26 years old when the Patriots won their second Super Bowl during the 2003 season.  In Brady’s age 27 year in 2004, the Patriots then repeated and won their second straight championship and three out of the last four years.

During Brady’s early portion of his career, he was more of a game manager and was not doing a ton of damage through the air.  In his first four seasons through his age-27 season, the young quarterback threw for 97 touchdowns, 52 interceptions, and earned a 87.5 passer rating.

However, the Patriots were winning a ton of games, largely because of an elite defense.  If Brady would have retired at 27 years old, how much different would the team look now?

Who would the team have started at quarterback?  Would the quarterback situation have looked a little bit like it does now?  What kind of place would Tom Brady have earned in NFL history if he’d have retired so early?

In all likelihood, if the GOAT would have retired at 27, well, he likely wouldn’t be the GOAT.  In fact, the amount of success he had and is still having in the NFL after turning 27 is enough for two or three separate NFL careers.

His unprecedented career is like nothing we’ve seen in professional sports’ history.  If Tom Brady would have retired at 27 years old, two decades worth of success at the highest level and all the records he broke in the process simply wouldn’t be.