After over two decades of domination, the greatest player to step onto a football field has called it a career. Seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady has officially announced his retirement from the NFL. The entire world, not just the NFL community, poured in their tributes to one of the most iconic athletes in American sports history.

NFL Twitter explodes as Tom Brady announces his retirement

In his final season, Brady topped nearly all the QB stat charts, from passing yards to touchdowns and even passes attempted. He led the Buccaneers to the Divisional Playoff round, but suffered the most heartbreaking of defeats to the Los Angeles Rams. Brady completed a stunning comeback from a 24 point deficit to level the game up at 27-27.

However, Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and the Rams ploughed through the Buccaneers defense to come within field goal range. A perfect kick for the three points served as a dagger to the hearts of Buccaneers fans, and of course, Brady himself. After that loss, many thought Brady would call time on his playing career.

From soccer legends like Luka Modric and Didier Drogba, to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, tributes flew in from everywhere for the NFL icon. Despite the NFL’s reach not extending to countries like Ivory Coast and even Croatia, the fact that athletes like Modric and Drogba paid their respects to Brady is simply sensational.

Brady’s retirement will continue being the biggest news for a while, despite the Super Bowl coming up in two weeks. Some could say the timing of his announcement was nothing short of perfect, but the attention will indefinitely shift to the upcoming clash between the Bengals and Brady’s slayers, the LA Rams.

Until then, we’ll reminisce about the incredible moments TB12 provided us with over the past twenty years. There will never be another career like Tom Brady’s; not in the NFL, and not in another sport in the world.

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