Even time couldn’t defeat the remarkable Tom Brady

Tom Brady was always going to leave on his own terms.

“When I suck, I’ll retire,” Brady said in 2014. But of all his achievements, the timing of Brady’s announcement that he will step away from the game after 22 seasons may be the most remarkable of all. He is not walking away because injuries sapped his greatness or because his play has declined as he approaches the age of 45. Brady is coming off two seasons in Tampa in which he was still one of the best players in the NFL and clinched his seventh Super Bowl in his 10th appearance. He still moves as well as he ever. Remarkably, there is more zip on his fastball now than there was six years ago.

No, he is walking away because, in middle age, there is a life for him beyond football. “I said this a few years ago, it’s what relationships are all about,” Brady said last week on his Let’s Go! podcast. “It’s not always what I want. It’s what we want as a family.” He is walking away because his three children aged quicker than his game; because he wants to build a clothing brand before he starts creaking.

The NFL will not be the same without Brady. He has presided over the top of the sport – a droning, nagging, staple of excellence – for 20 years. He retires as the most successful player to ever grace the league. The early portion of his career cemented his legacy: the overlooked, disrespected kid, drafted 199th overall, who grew to become the biggest sports star in America. He spent the second third of his career chasing – and surpassing – the legends of the game. And the final third chasing himself – seeing how much distance he could put between himself, the legends of the past and the legends to come.

It was a self-dubbed battle of Tom v Time, one man against the concept of