Written by This week is a celebration. The Greatest of All Time, the GOAT, has decided to retire from professional football. After winning 243 NFL games, including seven Super Bowls, and passing for 84,520 yards and 624 touchdowns in his 22-year career, Tom Brady will focus his time and energy on other things that require his attention. For his sake, I hope he chooses to retire from his quest for perfection as well.
The National Football League is the ultimate show of greatness. It features the best athletes in beautiful stadiums. Every play of every game is analyzed, documented, and tracked. NFL Films provides a thrilling narrative of each game, with its trademark pictures of spiraling footballs in the air. With its large viewership providing lucrative broadcast contracts to its owners, it is the envy of the other sports leagues.
Inside the NFL, a show shares this story of the great game each week with analysis and pictures, paid tribute to Brady this week. In terms of his fierce competitiveness, Phil Sims attested to Brady’s greatness by comparing him to his teammate Lawrence Taylor, universally considered the league’s best defensive player of all time.
Julian Edelman, Brady’s close friend and teammate, echoed Sims’ observation and described how Brady was entirely devoted to being the best every day of the year. He was emotional as he shared how much he appreciated this influence.
Using NFL Films footage, the show paid respect to Brady’s competitive drive and leadership with sideline conversations with teammates and his legendary coach and partner Bill Belichick. Tom Brady is a perfectionist in every way, paying attention to every detail to perform to the best of his ability. As a leader, he demanded the same drive from his teammates. Perfectionism made him go from the 199th pick in the draft to the greatest quarterback to play in the NFL. The numbers and the pictures prove it.
NFL fans glorify this quest for perfection. Because the league documents every play of every game, we can objectively analyze and compare players. We can measure greatness with a reasonable amount of accuracy. There are a finite number of players on a limited number of teams, and history goes back only a little over a hundred years. Perfectionism works. We reward it.
However, Brady wasn’t perfect. He threw 203 interceptions. He lost three Super Bowls.
News of former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filing a lawsuit claiming discrimination in the league’s hiring process stole headlines from Brady’s retirement announcement. Belichick is at the center of the controversy, as his errant text message provides proof of the Giants’ misleading Flores by interviewing him for a job already filled. As much as it tries and its ratings prove, the NFL isn’t perfect either.
Because Brady is retiring from a game where objective measurements are collected, he should consider giving up perfectionism. It will save him a lot of grief. It is harder to be the GOAT in the world he is entering.
Missing a small detail in the outside world opens you up for criticism. New England Patriots fans, who Brady served for 20 of his 22 seasons and delivered six of his seven championships, criticized Brady’s first act as a retired player. Brady had failed to mention them in his Instagram post announcing his retirement.
If Brady chooses to go into the broadcast booth, it may be a difficult transition. There are no objective measures like Super Bowl rings or passing records to quantify greatness. Fans love to nitpick and compare broadcasters, even though all of them are talented. Not long ago, viewers revered Tony Romo for his uncanny ability to predict what was coming. He quickly became everyone’s favorite TV color commentator. Now, fans are turning on him after some somewhat questionable strategy analysis in the final minutes of last Sunday’s AFC Championship Game broadcast.
Not everyone on the outside is a perfectionist. The competitive drive that motivated Edelman and his other dedicated and committed teammates to perform to the best of their abilities may not be as effective in Brady’s new roles. That fire he displayed to us on the sidelines may come across as being overly judgemental while he pursues those other things that require his attention. He will find it an adjustment not to be “all in” all of the time. Sometimes, we have to accept that everyone is doing their best.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen once said, “The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” I saw this quote when I read Brené Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection. Brown describes her journey of overcoming perfectionism and leading a wholehearted life. This book started me on my journey of being good enough and owning my story. I highly recommend it.
I wish you the best of luck in your retirement, Tom. I was usually rooting against you but always appreciated and admired your greatness. I hope you enjoy imperfection.