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Longtime New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has chosen to retire after 22 seasons as a pro, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington on Saturday. The two-year Tampa Bay Buccaneers legend went 1-4 against the New Orleans Saints after coming to the NFC, with the black and gold frustrating him at every turn. He must have decided all those sacks and interceptions and fumbles taken by the Saints defense were enough to make him into a family man.
Brady retires with a -66 career regular season point differential to New Orleans, the worst of any team; the Kansas City Chiefs are a very distant runner-up at -11. Only two other teams, the Seattle Seahawks (-9) and Arizona Cardinals (-2), ever managed to hold him to a negative point differential.
It’s a tremendous loss for the Buccaneers, who won their first division title in 14 years with Brady calling the shots for their bottom-feeding franchise. Unless second-year backup Kyle Trask is ready to lead them into the playoffs, they’re likely headed for another generation of ineptitude. Shame.
As for the Saints: the NFC South is wide open. The Carolina Panthers are stalling out on starting their inevitable post-Matt Rhule rebuild. And the Atlanta Falcons are in the deepest depths of salary cap hell with Matt Ryan’s $40 million cap hit weighing them down. If the Saints can find a worthy heir to Sean Payton as head coach and just field an above-average offense in 2022, they should run away with the division. Let’s see what happens next.
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