Buccaneers: Tom Brady cements GOAT legacy with two more wins

Two more wins.

Tom Brady has been in the NFC for all of one season and has already made it to the NFC Championship at 43 years old. Brady’s age during his second chapter in Tampa Bay makes Peyton Manning look like a young man by comparison, but Brady is still in a league of his own.

After leaving the relative safety of the Patriots organization and long-time head coach Bill Belichick, Brady joined a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in over a decade. This move may look crazy in the history books, but Brady is continuing to prove why he is the greatest of all-time.

Brady set the NFL record for most Super Bowl rings with the Patriots. This would be enough for most people, but Brady’s continued hunger is one of the defining factors of his incredible legacy. There were better teams on paper for Brady to join than the Bucs, but the challenge only added to the story.

While Brady wasn’t able to overcome the Saints or the Chiefs in the regular season, he wins when it matters, and the Bucs are on their first playoff run since their lone Super Bowl win in 2003.

Tom Brady is in a league of his own.

The best comparison to Brady’s current stint with the Buccaneers is the previously-mentioned Peyton Manning. Manning left the Colts after they decided to go in a younger direction, but he found a home with a solid Denver Broncos team.

Brady had more choice than Manning in the matter of leaving his main team, but Manning was still earlier in his career than Brady and was considered one of the most desired free agents of the decade. Brady was older than Manning and not as highly-coveted, but he has already found more success in year one than his counterpart.

Manning, who was still in his prime, lost in the divisional round of the playoffs in his first season with a new team, while Brady is moving on to the NFC Championship in year one.

The most significant difference between these two, other than their age, is that Brady moved to an entirely different conference. Manning had already won a Super Bowl before his time in Denver, but Brady had never played a snap in the NFC before this season.

Manning making it to the divisional round in the AFC playoffs in his first year with a new team was par for the course. Brady making it to the conference championship with a new team in a new conference is an entirely different accomplishment. Brady’s age only adds to the legend.