Tom Brady retired yesterday. Surprisingly, I have nothing bad to say about him.
I remember Brady at Michigan. The Wolverines kept trying to unseat him as their starting quarterback, but he saved their bacon at crunch time so often that they finally conceded that he was their starter.
Rather than repeating all of Brady's well-known accomplishments, I'll focus on his record against the spread. The following numbers are courtesy of Marc Lawrence's fine annual football magazine, Playbook. Heading into the 2021 season, Brady's career record against the spread was 191-131, which is awesome. Even more awesome was his record as an underdog, a scintillating 41-17 ATS. As a home underdog, get this, he was 11-1 ATS. Coming off a loss, which are crucial games for perennial winning teams, he was 48-22 ATS.
Being a gambling man, I was aware of these numbers and tried to find spots this season to bet against him, since the value was in going versus. Well, Brady was never an underdog in 2021, so I didn't really have an opportunity. He finished 10-9 ATS for the season.
Brady's retirement comments never mentioned CTE directly, but there was a flavor of awareness to what he said. The older quarterbacks get, the more hits they take.
Brady called it a day at, if not the height of his abilities, at least an elevation far above most mortal quarterbacks. I doubt that he will return to the game. He doesn't, to use his own words, do anything "half-assed." I suspect that being a retired Tom Brady as husband and father is going to be challenge aplenty. He'll undoubtedly give it his all.
Bob Dietz
February 2, 2022
