With player testing kicking off at the NFL Scouting Combine on Thursday, Tom Brady got that competitive itch again to see if he could redeem himself from his infamous showing at the event almost a quarter-century ago.
TB12 posted a 5.26-second 40 at the 2000 Combine, only to beat it 24 years later, at age 46. Literally more than half his current lifetime later. What a GOAT.
It’s revealed that Brady actually shaved a substantial amount of time off his many-moons-prior run, with an improved 5.12-second sprint this time around. Or at least that was the lowest time captured by multiple stopwatches. I’ll give it to him, that 5.12, as opposed to the 5.18, which still clears his Combine number.
Thankfully, the NFL gave us a Brady vs. Brady simulcam to illustrate the gap:
Glad to see Brady keeping himself in shape during retirement. You know, just in case he has any temptation to make a comeback., To be honest, as long as he wouldn’t mind getting hit a little bit, you can’t convince me that Brady can’t still play in the NFL at a high level. Hell, he planned to come back last year until a surprise retirement party forced his hand.
Brady aims to run even faster next year, too — and I won’t doubt him for a second.
Who knows how much preparation he did for this. Knowing Brady, he had to have gotten himself ready with at least a couple solid weeks of practice trial runs, since speed training isn’t really his forte to begin with. If he’s still this driven to better his physical fitness, why not come back to the NFL and play?
I know that cushy booth job at FOX is waiting for him, and that Brady is calling next year’s Super Bowl. That’s one way to stay super engaged with the game he loves. Still, I think everyone can agree that we’d rather see Brady throw on the pads for one last ride. He could probably play two additional seasons, to be honest. It’s not like his physical skills had some sort of precipitous decline at the end of his career. He was still out there slinging that pill all over the yard.
No one’s ever going to mistake Brady for being a dual-threat guy. I just love that he’s still finding football-related challenges to tackle at this juncture of his life. Like, cool Tom. Now go play for your hometown 49ers, get them over the hump, win your eighth Super Bowl, become an even greater legend, and then ride off into the sunset for good. Just kidding. Or am I?
A little bonus here at the end: Enjoy this Mario Kart-themed comparison between Brady’s Year 2000 dash of 40 yards, and the blazing speed of Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf, who posted a time of 4.33 seconds.
