Tom Brady is retiring from the NFL after 23 incredible seasons, establishing the greatest career in NFL history. Brady won seven Super Bowl titles in his tenure with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the most by any player in NFL history and more Super Bowl titles than any franchise.
In addition to Brady's seven Super Bowl titles, his five Super Bowl MVP's are the most in NFL history. Brady has the most passing yards and passing touchdowns in league history, along with the most quarterback wins and Pro Bowl selections in league history. Brady is the only player to win a NFL title in three different decades and is the only starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two different franchises in each conference (Peyton manning is the only other starting quarterback to win Super Bowls with two different teams).
Brady's career is something to awe at, as he arguably is the greatest player in NFL history. Let's take an incredible look back at his career in this special edition of "By The Numbers."
Most pass yards in NFL history -- regular season
- Tom Brady -- 89,214
- Drew Brees -- 80,538
- Peyton Manning -- 71,940
- Brett Favre -- 71,838
- Ben Roethlisberger -- 64,088
Most pass TD in NFL history -- regular season
- Tom Brady -- 649
- Drew Brees -- 571
- Peyton Manning -- 539
- Brett Favre -- 508
- Aaron Rodgers -- 475
Brady spent 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, making them an iconic franchise in the NFL. New England built a model of sustained success thanks to Brady, capturing what's tied for the most Super Bowl championships in league history and making the playoffs in all but one season Brady started more than one game. The Patriots were the definition of consistency with Brady at the helm, a franchise fortunate to employ him for two decades.
Take a look at how good Brady was in his career with the Patriots (not counting his last three years with the Buccaneers).
Most passing yards -- NFL history
- Tom Brady -- 102,614
- Drew Brees -- 85,724
- Peyton Manning -- 79,279
- Brett Favre -- 77,693
- Tom Brady (career with Patriots) -- 74,571
- Ben Roethlisberger -- 70,060
Most passing touchdowns -- NFL history
- Tom Brady -- 736
- Drew Brees -- 571
- Tom Brady (career with Patriots) -- 541
- Peyton Manning -- 539
- Brett Favre -- 508
- Aaron Rodgers -- 449
Most wins as a starting QB -- NFL history
- Tom Brady (career with Patriots) -- 219
- Peyton Manning -- 186
- Brett Favre -- 186
- Drew Brees -- 172
- Ben Roethlisberger -- 166
Brady's career with the Patriots is unlike the NFL has ever seen. His six Super Bowl titles with New England are tied with Herb Adderley, Fuzzy Thurston, and Forrest Gregg for the most championships by a player in NFL history. The Patriots -- in turn -- have six Super Bowl titles and nine Super Bowl appearances with Brady, the most in NFL history (New England has 11 total Super Bowl appearances, while Pittsburgh has the second most with eight).
Brady won three NFL MVP awards and four Super Bowl MVP awards with New England (has five Super Bowl MVP awards overall). He's the only player in NFL history to throw for more than 70,000 yards and 500 touchdowns with one franchise.
As for the Super Bowl, Brady was just on another level. What Brady was able to do in the Super Bowl was unlike the league has ever seen.
Most Super Bowl starts (quarterback)
- Tom Brady (Patriots/Buccaneers) -- 10
- John Elway (Broncos) -- 5
- Joe Montana (49ers) -- 4
- Peyton Manning (Colts/Broncos) -- 4
- Terry Bradshaw (Steelers) -- 4
- Jim Kelly (Bills) -- 4
- Roger Staubach (Cowboys) -- 4
What has made Brady's resume even more incredible is his success after turning 37 years old. Brady started five Super Bowls since turning 37 (he's 4-1 in those starts), which is more starts than all but one quarterback has throughout his entire career in NFL history (Elway). Brady has started three Super Bowls since turning 40, one more than Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees combined to play in their entire careers.
Since Brady has double the amount of Super Bowl starts as any other quarterback, it's not surprising he dominates the top of many Super Bowl passing statistics. Let's take a look at how dominant Brady has been in the Super Bowl.
Most pass completions in Super Bowl history (career)
- Tom Brady (Patriots/Buccaneers) -- 277
- Peyton Manning (Colts/Broncos) -- 103
- Kurt Warner (Rams/Cardinals) -- 83
- Joe Montana (49ers) -- 83
- Jim Kelly (Bills) -- 81
Most passing yards in Super Bowl history (career)
- Tom Brady (Patriots/Buccaneers) -- 3,039
- Kurt Warner (Rams/Cardinals) -- 1,156
- Joe Montana (49ers) -- 1,152
- John Elway (Broncos) -- 1,128
- Peyton Manning (Colts/Broncos) -- 1,001
Most passing touchdowns in Super Bowl history (career)
- Tom Brady (Patriots/Buccaneers) -- 21
- Joe Montana (49ers) -- 11
- Terry Bradshaw (Steelers) -- 9
- Roger Staubach (Cowboys) -- 8
- Kurt Warner (Rams/Cardinals) -- 6
- Steve Young (49ers) -- 6
Most Super Bowl wins (career)
- Tom Brady (Patriots/Buccaneers) -- 7
- Joe Montana (49ers) -- 4
- Terry Bradshaw (Steelers) -- 4
- Troy Aikman (Cowboys) -- 3
Brady has played 20 seasons with a playoff game, the most in NFL history. He has more playoff wins (35) than all but three franchises. Only theNew England Patriots (37), San Francisco 49ers (37), Green Bay Packers (36), Dallas Cowboys (36), and Pittsburgh Steelers (36) have more -- and Brady has 30 of the Patriots' playoff wins.
Most NFL championships (player)
- Tom Brady (Patriots/Buccaneers) -- 7
- Herb Adderley (Packers/Cowboys) -- 6
- Forrest Gregg (Packers/Cowboys) -- 6
- Fuzzy Thurston (Colts/Packers) -- 6
Most NFL championships (quarterback)
- Tom Brady (Patriots/Buccaneers) -- 7
- Bart Starr (Packers) -- 5
- Joe Montana (49ers) -- 4
- Terry Bradshaw (Steelers) -- 4
Brady is technically tied with Otto Graham for the most championships with seven, as Graham won four straight in the All-American Football Conference with the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1949. Only three of those championships count as NFL titles (the Browns joined the NFL in 1950). Graham played in a championship game in all 10 of his professional football seasons, the same amount as Brady -- and the most for a starting quarterback in NFL history.
Finally, Brady holds or shares 40 NFL records. Here's an incredible list of all of them:
Tom Brady's NFL records
- Most passing yards (89,214)
- Most passing touchdowns (649)
- Most pass attempts (12,050)
- Most completions (7,753)
- Most wins as starting QB (251)
- Most 3,000-yard passing seasons (20)
- Most 20 pass touchdown seasons (20)
- Most quarterback starts (333)
- Most games by a quarterback (335)
- Oldest quarterback to start and win a game (45)
- Oldest player to play in and win a Super Bowl (43)
- Most Super Bowl wins (7)
- Most Super Bowl appearances (10)
- Most Super Bowl passing yards (3,039)
- Most Super Bowl passing touchdowns (21)
- Most Super Bowl completions (277)
- Most Super Bowl passing attempts (421)
- Most passing yards in a Super Bowl (505)
- Most completions in a Super Bowl (43)
- Most pass attempts in a Super Bowl (62)
- Most playoff wins (35)
- Most playoff games (48)
- Most playoff passing yards (13,400)
- Most playoff passing touchdowns (88)
- Most playoff completions (1,200)
- Most playoff pass attempts (1,921)
- Most games with a touchdown pass (291)
- Most games with multiple passing touchdowns (204)
- Most games with three passing touchdowns (104)
- Most games with four passing touchdowns (39)
- Most consecutive games with two passing touchdowns and zero interceptions (9)
- Most games with 300 passing yards and zero interceptions (62)
- Most games with three passing touchdowns and zero interceptions (68)
- Most games with four passing touchdowns and zero interceptions (28)
- Only NFL player to win a title in three different decades
- Threw a touchdown pass to 96 different players (regular season)
- Threw a touchdown pass to 35 different players (postseason)
- Longest completion (99 yards, shares record)
- One of two quarterbacks to start and win a Super Bowl for multiple teams (Peyton Manning)
- One of four quarterbacks to defeat all 32 NFL teams
The greatest career of any player in NFL history belongs to Tom Brady. An incredible 23 seasons that will seemingly be impossible for anyone to match.
