Tom Brady: Why it was time for the quarterback who literally changed the game to hang up his helmet

“You only get one emotional goodbye,” reckoned Tom Brady in his retirement video yesterday. “I used mine up last year.”

The greatest NFL quarterback of all time is taking off his helmet – for good this time, after the on, off and on again saga of last off-season. The truth is that it’s not before time.

Brady’s achievements dwarf those of just about anybody in American sport. One could argue that the seven Super Bowls he won – in a sport which is engineered to create parity and make it very difficult to win one let alone more than a half-dozen – is amongst the great achievements of any individual in a team sport.

But age catches up with people. He retires, aged 45, while his rival in the early years of his career, Peyton Manning, spent last season making Nickelodeon-friendly broadcasts of NFL games alongside his brother Eli, who came into the league after Brady and retired before him.

In a punishingly vicious sport, it’s maybe his longevity that people will remember most. 

In his last season, the magic appeared to have gone. Brady stopped throwing what are known as quick outs – passes that rely on arm strength, right across the field, and need zip and muscle. Defences were able to pack the middle against him, forcing him into throws into ever tighter windows.

Put simply – the greatest of all time, whose performance under pressure sometimes suggested at least an element of robot blood rather than potentially fallible human, had succumbed to old age and no longer had an NFL arm.