“I was in awe of Michael Jordan”: When Tom Brady admitted he was looking to usurp the NBA GOAT as the greatest American athlete

Tom Brady has retired as the greatest NFL player of all time, and there is genuine debate if he’s up there with Michael Jordan for the greatest athlete in American sports.

Brady’s retirement news still lingers in the air even though the news broke about a month ago. He was in the NFL for so long that now it will feel weird to not see him suit up for games every week.

Brady took his teams to great heights. He went to 10 Super Bowls in his career and won seven Super Bowls, most in NFL history and more than any NFL franchise ever. It’s incredible how well Brady did considering he was a sixth round draft pick and wasn’t even a starter in the league until Drew Bledsoe happened to get injured.

After Brady had become an established star in the league and had won some Super Bowls, he knew how high he could go and had his sights set on the greatest NBA player of all time.

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Tom Brady always admired Michael Jordan

Before there was Brady, there was Jordan. Jordan had his own run of dominance, ending shortly before Brady made his debut in the NFL.

From the 1990s, there was no player who was more dominant than Jordan in the NBA and no team more successful than the Chicago Bulls. Jordan won six NBA titles from 1990-1998 in two three-peats, finishing an unbeaten 6-0 in the NBA’s biggest stage.

After Brady won his fifth Super Bowl in 2017, beating the Atlanta Falcons in perhaps the biggest and best comeback in NFL history (when you consider the fact that it came in a Super Bowl), coming back from 28-3 in the third quarter, Brady let people know Jordan was always on his mind.

“I was in awe of Michael Jordan,” Brady had said, “and I still am in awe of what he was and what he meant. … He was such an effortless player. He put a lot of effort in, but there’s an art and a beauty to the way he played the game. That was a very inspiring thing.”

Brady at that point also spoke about his future retirement plans and how he intended to play into his mid 40s which is exactly what he did. Brady retired at 44 years old, putting his family first. Even in 2017, he knew that he would some day had to think about what his family wanted, especially since his wife Gisele Bündchen really wanted him to.

“I always said my mid-40s, and naturally that means around 45. If I get there and I still feel like I do today, I don’t see why I wouldn’t want to continue. She wants me to do that, too,” Brady said. “She also wants me to take good care of myself and still have my energy. My kids have grown up faster than I thought.”

Well, Brady did exactly what he talked about doing. He retired in his 40s, took care of his health, prioritized his family, and did catch up to and even surpassed Michael Jordan. Unlike other greats of the game, Brady also went out playing some of the best football of his career, finishing with perhaps his second best year of his career.

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