Tom Brady’s been winning for how long?! 21 amazing facts before Super Bowl LV
By The Athletic NFL Staff 1h ago
Tom Brady is heading to his
10th (!) Super Bowl. He is the fourth quarterback to start the Super Bowl for multiple franchises, joining Peyton Manning (Colts and Broncos), Kurt Warner (Rams and Cardinals) and Craig Morton (Cowboys and Broncos). Brady and Morton are the only quarterbacks to do so for a team in each conference and he’ll try to join Manning as the only QBs to win a Super Bowl for multiple franchises. Brady is going for his seventh Super Bowl win as a starting quarterback — he already holds the record with six. (Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw are tied for second with four apiece).
His first Super Bowl appearance was Feb. 3, 2002, and at the time, as a 24-year-old, he set the record for the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl. (That record is now held by Ben Roethlisberger, who won one at the age of 23 in 2006.) Brady has since set the record for the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and will try to break it against 25-year-old Patrick Mahomes on February 7 at the age of 43.
To try to understand just how long his stretch of dominance has lasted, our staff submitted some of their favorite stats about Brady’s career:
• This would be Brady’s fourth Super Bowl win after turning 37, which would match the total of all other starting QBs age 37 or older combined. (Johnny Unitas, John Elway twice and Peyton Manning).
• Every LeBron James point. All of Alex Ovechkin’s goals. Michael Phelps’ gold medals … all have happened since Brady’s first Super Bowl.
• Brady is playing a Super Bowl during a fourth Presidential administration: His first four appearances came while George W. Bush was President, his fifth and sixth while Barack Obama was President, his seventh, eighth and ninth during Donald Trump’s presidency, and his 10th less than a month into Joe Biden’s first term.
• When Brady made his NFL debut in 2000, there were 31 teams, six divisions and the Seahawks played in the AFC.
• Babe Ruth played in 10 World Series, and his teams won seven of them. Brady is heading to his 10th Super Bowl and seeking his seventh victory.
• When Brady made his NFL debut in 2000, his Buccaneers offensive coordinator (Byron Leftwich) was a sophomore quarterback at Marshall.
• Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski was a redshirt sophomore at Penn and new Eagles coach Nick Sirianni had just played in the Stagg Bowl with Mount Union when Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl on Feb. 3, 2002.
• “Spider-Man”, starring Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, was released exactly three months after Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl. There have since been seven additional Spider-Man movies (including “Into the Spider-verse”). Tom Brady has appeared in a Super Bowl in all but two of the years that a Spider-Man movie has been released (2007 for “Spider-Man 3” and 2012 for “The Amazing Spider-Man”, were the only years he missed).
• Usher’s “U Got It Bad” and Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” were the top two songs in the U.S. the week of Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl in 2002.
• On Feb. 1, 2004, “You Got Served” set a box office record for the highest-grossing Super Bowl weekend film debut of all time. That night Tom Brady won his second Super Bowl with the New England Patriots.
• Most QB wins after turning 40: Tom Brady, NE/TB, 37; Drew Brees, NO, 17; Brett Favre, MIN, 13; Warren Moon, HOU/MIN/SEA/KC, 11; Vinny Testaverde, DAL/NYJ/NE/CAR, 8.
• On Feb. 6, 2005, “Boogeyman” broke the Super Bowl weekend debut box office record set by “You Got Served”. That night Tom Brady won his third Super Bowl with the New England Patriots.
• Brady is No. 1 on the all time victories list at 230, ahead of No. 2 Adam Vinatieri (1996-2019) at 221; 3. George Blanda (1949-75) at 209; 4. Gary Anderson (1982-2004) at 201; and 5. Jerry Rice (1985-2004) at 194.
• On Feb. 5, 2017, Migos and Lil Uzi Vert were enjoying their first and only No. 1 hit, “Bad and Boujee”. That night Brady enjoyed his fifth Super Bowl win.
• Brady has completed an NFL-record 256 passes in the Super Bowl, more than twice as many as any other player in league history (Peyton Manning is second with 103). The Buccaneers have 264 completions in the franchise’s postseason history (including Brady this season).
• Brady has an NFL-record 2,838 career passing yards in the Super Bowl, more than twice as many as any other player in league history (Kurt Warner is second with 1,156).
• Brady has an NFL-record 18 career TD passes in the Super Bowl, seven more than any other player in league history (Joe Montana is second with 11). If you only counted Brady’s touchdown passes in his Super Bowl wins, he would still have more than any other player in Super Bowl history (12).
• Brady now has an NFL-record 41 second-half TD passes in his postseason career. That’s more than Peyton Manning (40), Drew Brees (37), Ben Roethlisberger (34) and Kurt Warner (31) have in their postseason careers overall.
When would Patrick Mahomes catch Tom Brady in some notable career statistical categories?
The Super Bowl will obviously have an impact, but even if Brady were to never play again, Mahomes would need to maintain his career averages and play a least 16 injury-free NFL seasons to match Brady’s career and playoff totals in wins, completions, yards and touchdowns.
When would Mahomes catch Brady?
GAME TYPE | CATEGORY | TRAILS BY | MAHOMES PER YEAR | YEAR WOULD PASS |
---|
Reg. Season | Wins | 192 | 12.7 | 2036 (20th) |
| Completions | 5,664 | 371.3 | 2036 (20th) |
| Pass yds | 65,052 | 4,717.3 | 2034 (18th) |
| Pass TD | 467 | 38.0 | 2033 (17th) |
| | | | |
Playoffs | Wins | 27 | 2.0 | 2034 (18th) |
| Completions | 920 | 55.0 | 2037 (21st) |
| Pass yds | 10,194 | 684.7 | 2035 (19th) |
| Pass TD | 63 | 5.7 | 2032 (16th) |
| | | | |
Super Bowl | Appearances | 8 | 0.67 | 2032 (16th) |
| Wins | 5 | 0.33 | 2035 (19th) |
Note: Mahomes’ per-year averages are based on seasons as a starter and are through the AFC Championship.
The Athletic‘s Jason Starrett, Rob Rossi, Zac Jackson and Steve Buckley contributed to this story.