Opinion: Why Tom Brady Has to Win the Super Bowl This Year

Tom Brady is one of the greatest players in National Football League history. Brady is not ageless, though, and thus he may need to win a Super Bowl this year if he wants a fifth ring.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady turned 39 years old on August 3.

Brady is different things to different people. Some view Brady as the greatest quarterback in the history of the National Football League. Those who actively root against the Patriots may refer to Brady as a cheater due to multiple controversies, most recently the “Deflategate” scandal that earned Brady a four-game ban Brady will serve at the start of the 2016 NFL regular season.

One thing Brady is to everybody is 39 years old. Brady can’t do anything about that.

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NFL fans are familiar with Brady’s resume. You at least know Brady is a four-time Super Bowl champion. Brady’s place in Canton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame is already guaranteed. Architects can start building that wing anytime they’re ready.

Brady is also 39 years old.

Brady does well to keep himself in tremendous physical shape. That’s commendable. Brady’s longest absence from the Patriots since taking over as the team’s starting quarterback occurred back in the fall of 2008 when a freak moment resulted in a knee injury that sidelined Brady for an entire season. Brady is a mainstay of the New England offense and of NFL weekends.

Again, Brady is 39 years old.

“Age is only a number” is a great cliche we tell ourselves. It often isn’t true in sports. We say that a soccer player/footballer reaches the peak of his physical powers at the age of 29. A running back who isn’t Adrian Peterson or something special dramatically diminishes in skill once he turns 30 years old. Quarterbacks never win anything of merit past the age of 40. Never.

Brady is 39.

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There is something to be said for the fact that NFL rules protect QBs such as Brady now more so than ever before. Still, it is not as if Brady and others were playing in the Wild West of QB hits a decade ago. Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner and others enjoyed certain privileges and were awarded favorable calls back in 2006. Such a life comes with being a superstar quarterback.

Brady cannot escape Father Time. No quarterback efore him accomplished that achievement. No QB after him will unless somebody discovers a legitimate Fountain of Youth. Brady may feel great today. Following four weeks of unpaid rest and recovery, Brady may light up the scoreboard when he returns to action to take on the Cleveland Browns in Week 5 of the upcoming season.

Older quarterbacks often lose it quickly; and when it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

Peyton Manning tossed 55 touchdown passes during the 2013 regular season. That’s five more TDs than Brady threw in 2007 when Brady played alongside Randy Moss and when the Patriots won 18 straight games before losing Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants. Brett Favre never even flirted with throwing 50 TDs in one campaign.

On September 23, 2013, Frank Schwab of the Yahoo Sports blog Shutdown Corner speculated if it was too early to give Manning the Most Valuable Player award for that season. Manning looked as good as ever that fall, and he and the Denver Broncos appeared destined to win a championship. Only after Manning and the Denver offense ran into the juggernaut that was the defense of the Seattle Seahawks did critics dare suggest that maybe Manning’s age was a concern.

Manning became a shell of his former self physically less than two years after the publication of that Schwab piece. That’s how quickly Manning fell before our very eyes. In fact, those of us who watched Manning throughout his career could barely believe what we saw from “The Sheriff” in 2015. Manning not only played poorly. He was no longer the same QB who set dozens of records and who threw 55 touchdowns just two years earlier.

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That same Manning became the oldest starting QB to ever start in and win a Super Bowl this past February. Manning hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy thanks to the defense of the Broncos leading Denver to a victory over the Carolina Panthers at Super Bowl 50.

Manning turned 40 years old roughly six weeks after Super Bowl 50.

Favre’s fall from grace was slower and, in a way, more painful. Favre tossed over 20 interceptions in a season on three occasions beginning in 2003. He twice committed unforgivable and costly turnovers in NFC Championship Games, once while with the Green Bay Packers (2007) and once as the starting quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings (2009).

Favre played well at the age of 40 and during his first season with the Vikings, but it was clear to all watching that the “Gunslinger” had disappeared a year later even though Favre tried to hang around past his 41st birthday.

Favre never won a conference championship in his late 30s let alone past the age of 40. Manning probably isn’t returning to the field, so we can say the same about him.

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Tom Brady is special. There’s no denying that. If any current QB in the NFL can become the first to win a Super Bowl past his 40th birthday, it should be Brady considering all that he has done during his career. That championship would serve as one final cherry on top of the sundae that is one of the best hall-of-fame resumes in modern sports.

History, however, is against Brady. Time is running out for Brady to win another Super Bowl before he rides off into the sunset either willingly or because he is pulled away from the game. No quarterback in league history has ever played in a Super Bowl past his 40th birthday.

Tom Brady is 39 years old. Brady turns 40 on August 3, 2017.