MATT CAMPBELL/EPATom Brady was as good as ever playing at age 38 last season, throwing 36 touchdowns with just seven interceptions.
Peyton Manning may be ready to ride off into the sunset, but the other legendary quarterback of this era isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has agreed to a two-year extension, ESPN reported Monday. The new pact will keep Brady in a Pats uniform through 2019. By the end of the deal, Brady will be 42, and he’ll be the fourth player to play two full decades with a single team.
Terms of the deal remain unknown, although typically, when a player signs an extension, it helps lower his cap number in the short term. Brady is currently due to count $ 15 million against the 2016 salary cap.
The Patriots rarely tie themselves to aging stars, typically parting ways with top players the moment those players show signs of weakness. But Brady, 38, has shown no signs of slowing down, and he’s been at the helm of one of the most successful runs in football history.
Since Brady leapfrogged past Drew Bledsoe as starting quarterback in 2001, the Patriots have missed the playoffs only twice — in 2002 when they went 9-7 as defending champs and in 2008 when Matt Cassel quarterbacked New England to an 11-5 record after Brady blew out his knee in the first game of the season.
Last year, Brady was as good as he’s ever been, throwing 36 TD passes and just seven interceptions, despite being without top receiver Julian Edelman for seven games. New England went 12-4 and advanced to the AFC title game for the fifth straight season, only to fall to Manning’s Broncos in Denver.
That loss cost Brady a chance to chase his fifth Super Bowl title and insure himself a place atop the Mount Rushmore for quarterbacks. Brady currently has four Super Bowl victories, tied with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most in league history. He’s 4-2 in the big game, his lone losses coming at the hands of the Giants and Eli Manning.
Now that he seems set to stick around for another few years, he’ll have several chances to chase that record-breaking title, likely without his longtime nemesis standing in his way.
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