By Nick Forbes, Managing Editor of Content
On Jan. 20, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff made history by becoming the fastest quarterback selected number one overall in the draft to reach the Super Bowl. Three years is all it took Goff to reach the big game, and at 24 years old he becomes the fourth-youngest quarterback to start in the big game.
The fifth-youngest quarterback on that list will be Goff’s opponent on Feb. 3 – New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who just turned 41 this past August.
To put this in perspective, when a 24-year-old Brady won his first Super Bowl in 2001, Goff was a ripe seven years old.
Brady continues to remain an enigma to the sports world. Pundits and fans alike are baffled by how Brady is able to maintain this level of play in such a physical sport for nearly 20 years. And with the quarterback position being redefined by the younger generations of players, Brady continues to buck the trend.
The 2018-19 NFL season gave rise to what could possibly be the next crop of franchise quarterbacks. Rookie Baker Mayfield took the Cleveland Browns from absolute dumpster fire to moderately okay, and fellow greenhorn Lamar Jackson took the reigns from Joe Flacco mid-season and spurred an improbable playoff push.
Second-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes has quickly become the new golden child of the league, making almost inhuman plays with his feet as well as his arm, and leading the Kansas City Chiefs to their first AFC Championship game appearance since 1993.
Despite the hype around Mahomes’ undeniable talent and the Chiefs blazing offense, they fell to the Patriots, as Brady led clutch drive after clutch drive in the fourth quarter and overtime to secure his 9th Super Bowl appearance.
If you follow football closely, you know the almost-obsessive extent to which Brady treats and prepares his body. He attributes his success to his ability to keep his body “pliable,” but from a purely athletic standpoint, Brady ranks towards the very bottom of the list.
He won’t execute a run/pass option like Cam Newton, and he surely won’t fire no-look sidearm dimes straight to the hands of his receivers like Mahomes, but Brady’s near-complete knowledge of the game of football still keeps him at the forefront of the increasingly youthful NFL.
“Why would I retire now,” Brady said when posed with the question following his fourth Super Bowl win in 2015, “I feel like I’ve been given all the answers to the test.”
And so just like time, Brady marches on, sending a message to the so-called “new faces” of the NFL – wait your turn.
