When the Patriots face the Texans tonight, Tom Brady will break a record of his own just by stepping on the field, and then he’ll break more of his own records as the game goes on.
Brady will be playing in the 32nd postseason game of his career, which is the most in NFL history. He’s the first player ever to play the equivalent of two full seasons in the postseason. Here are all the career postseason records Brady owns:
Games played: Brady set the record of 31 last year, surpassing his old teammate Adam Vinatieri, who has played in 30 career postseason games. Tonight will be Brady’s 32nd career postseason game. Brady’s Patriots are 22-9 in the games he’s started; no other quarterback has been on the winning team more than 16 times.
Pass attempts: Brady has thrown 1,183 passes in the postseason, 156 more than second-place Peyton Manning. Brady will keep adding to that record tonight, and it’s a record no one will approach for many years, if ever: Ben Roethlisberger, with 540 career postseason passes, is second among active players, and he’s not even halfway to Brady’s total.
Pass completions: Brady owns the record with 738 postseason completions, 89 more than Peyton Manning. Again, no active player is close: Roethlisberger is second among active players with 334.
Yards gained: Brady has 7,957, which is 618 more than Peyton Manning. Roethlisberger is the active leader with 4,249.
300-yard games: Brady has 10 games of at least 300 yards passing, one more than Peyton Manning. Brady has thrown for at least 300 yards in each of his last three postseason games, and if he does it again tonight he’ll have four in a row, which would tie Dan Fouts for the most consecutive 300-yard postseason games.
Touchdown passes: Brady has 56 career postseason touchdown passes, 11 more than second-place Joe Montana. Aaron Rodgers is second among active players with 31.
Brady also owns the single-game postseason completion percentage at 92.9 percent, going 26-for-28 in a 2007 game against the Jaguars. And he co-owns the single-game postseason touchdown record, with six touchdowns in a win over the Broncos in 2011.
However, Brady also has to worry about setting one record he’d prefer not to set: Brady has thrown 28 career postseason interceptions, just two fewer than the all-time record holder, Brett Favre. When you play in as many postseason games as Brady has, you’re bound to throw a few picks. If he throws a few more, he’ll have one dubious record to go with all his extraordinary records.