NFL legend Tom Brady finally retired after the 2022 season following a lot of indecision and rumors galore regarding his football future. But there are probably very few football fans out there who were foolish enough to assume his well-known competitive spirit would just fade along with it. Because on Thursday, "TB12" decided to throw on the cleats once again in the name of eclipsing his not-so-great 5.28 time in the 40-yard dash at the 2000 NFL Combine.
While never being known for housing impressive speed throughout his storied NFL career, it clearly wasn't something that ever hindered Brady's performance. Staying in the pocket — and being an all-time great at QB sneaks — led him to a whopping 10 Super Bowl appearances and seven Super Bowl rings.
But this is Tom Brady we're talking about here and any kind of playful digs over the years about his slow 40-yard dash time — which was really never that important — has provided enough inspiration and motivation to improve on said time. And that's exactly what he did.
Here's a clip of the 46-year-old Brady in his valiant sprint to redemption:
24 years later, redemption is spelled T O M ? @nobull pic.twitter.com/6BoruftAd9
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) February 29, 2024
To the surprise of likely no one, Brady beat his time from 24 years ago, clocking in at a pretty impressive 5.12. If you really think about, the number of NFL players — regardless of position or speed — who could actually improve on their 40-yard dash time 24 years after their initial showing at the NFL Combine could probably be counted on one hand.
The only possible knock here might be Brady's on caption of: "24 years later, redemption is spelled T O M." Dropping the video with the simple and succinct words of "You can't spell redemption without TOM" was quite literally right there for the taking, but that's just a personal preference and a small detail within the much bigger picture of the living legend's constant insistence on testing himself.
Perhaps the greatest part of the video comes at the 1:26 mark where a winded Brady says, "that was fun, next year it's gonna be faster." Of course he said that. And who's to say it won't? Most of us learned long ago to never question or challenge anything No. 12 says he can do. And when we ever have, we usually ended up learning the hard way more often than not.
Also in consideration for the greatest aspect of the clip was a hilarious quote that came over the phone from Brady's business manager, who reacted with: "If you did that 25 years ago, you'd get drafted in the third round."
Brady famously ended up going in the sixth round to the New England Patriots with the 199th overall pick. That decision seems to have turned out more than OK for all parties involved.
