If Max Kellerman is anywhere near as well-known off this board as on it, that quote's got to be on the inside of Brady's locker, right next to the portrait of Dorian Gray.
I love this subject, because it's such a mirror of how our minds operate. We have an unknown; some will assert knowledge of the unknown. Some are cautious and assert that they do not know the unknown, which, by definition, is the state of affairs.
Not only is Brady's retirement date unknown because each individual is different, it's even unknowner because he's the "first of his kind." They just don't last that long, and he did.
I don't watch American Ninja Warrior, but it was on in the background last night.
The big prize is 1 million dollars if you get declared a "Ninja Warrior" by finishing the whole obstacle course. For 7 seasons, nobody's done it.
Then a guy did it last night.
Then another guy did it last night.
Then the last stage is this rope climb you have to do in 30 seconds. One guy makes it up in 29 and some fraction. The other guy makes it up in 26.
Check this out - the first guy didn't get a penny. He could have done what he did any night in the last 7 years except last night, and gone home a millionaire. But nooooooo.
And that first guy's name was Peyton Manning. JUST KIDDING.
So anyway, that's a made-for-TV sport. I don't rule out that they just straight-up rigged the course to be easier. Other explanations: After 7 years, they were "due," because the athletes copied the most successful biomechanical solutions (think Fosberry Flop in high jumping). What had never been done in Season 3 was ho-hum by now (speculating.)
With Brady, you can't even read the little clues that he's about to suck, until the decline's complete. He's a different class of warrior when it comes to the enemy of bodily (and mind) decay.
We might or might not see a new era of QB tenacity in this regard.
There's a chicken-and-egg factor that goes into this: Winning breeds competitiveness, to stay at that summit or to scale it again. What if you're Tom Brady, and you're on a shlitzshow of a franchise? What if you have any other story than his? What if you have exactly the right kind of confidence and exactly the right kind of humility, but the team around you won't get on your back when you're ready to carry it on your back?
With that first ring, TFB galvanized the franchise. By the third one, he was a legend. That huddle/locker room/etc. was his in a unique way. To slightly mis-apply a quote from the late great Junior Seau, may he rest in peace, playing with Tom meant you might become part of ever.
So with all those factors, other variables fall into exactly the right place, if all those factors are in place. Tom gets it into his head that he isn't done or close to done, just b/c of a number. Tom has another run of Super Bowls just as he "should be" becoming expendable.
Then Tom's faced with a future in which he'll be counted out and there's nothing he can do about it.
Seriously, you're going to tell Tom Brady that?
Enter strange workout routines, avocado ice cream, and for all we know pentagrams drawn with the monthly flow of a virgin. Tom beats out the promise of "the next Brady" in Jimmy G.
Sorry to Saturday-morning ramble here. The upshot is, we don't know what we don't know. This is a little different from "hoping that Warren Moon finally gets to a SB."
It's a guy with a chance to win it all every season.
As to whether we need to draft a QB in the first, we either do or we do not. If we do, it will either be worth it, or it won't. Please nobody turn all JETE-fan and cry about whatever we decide to do.
And please don't cry if the guy does take the reins from Brady before Brady's ready, despite my love letter above.
And short answer, I don't think we pick a QB in the first, but all I know is that I don't know. That and the fact that my random binkie, TE David Wells of San Diego State, will be a New England Patriots (tongue in cheek, of course).
