He’s gonna need a bigger cake.
At some point today, two score and four candles will be planted into seaweed-based icing on an asparagus-based cake for Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.
TB12 is 12 plus 32 today, as he prepares for his 22nd NFL season. To put that in perspective, Jets quarterback Zach Wilson turns 22 today.
Brady has defied Father Time, through his obsession with diet and specific exercises aimed at making his body more pliable and thus able to withstand the physical stress of football. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working. Last year, Brady won his seventh Super Bowl. This year, his team is expected by many to return to the championship game.
Under Brady’s current career timeline, he’ll play two more seasons. He recently has said that, after those two seasons, he’ll decide whether to continue. The legs not the arm become the key; he’ll be able to throw like he does into his 50s. If/when he can’t get away from guys half his age and younger, he’ll get hit and inevitably hurt. Eventually, that will be that.
But that isn’t that just yet. Brady just keeps going. And time will tell whether he’s an aberration or he’s blazing a trail for others to perform at a high level deep into their 40s.