Tom Brady has officially become the greatest quarterback of all time and there’s no evidence proving it otherwise. With his historic comeback against the Atlanta Falcons, Brady now has five Super Bowl rings and four Super Bowl MVPs. There is no doubt he has been the best to ever step foot on a football field. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is waiting for him, but Brady has no plans of retiring. Why should he? He just had one of his best seasons ever at the age of 39. The ‘Deflategate’ certainly didn’t deflate his confidence and motivation. Even though the NFL took away the Patriot’s star quarterback for four games, Bill Belichick still found a way. It just shows the whole is more important than the individual and it cements the legendary careers of Tom Brady and the Patriots organization as a whole

At the beginning of the season, the Patriots already had a dent in their race for another Super Bowl title with Tom Brady being suspended for four games due to the Deflategate and Rob Gronkowski out the first four games due to injury. With the team relying heavily on guys like LeGarrette Blount, Julian Edelman, Jimmy Garoppolo, and almost forgotten players like Chris Hogan and Danny Amendola, the Patriots obtained a 3-1 record in Brady’s absence. Not to mention for one of those games they had to play Jacoby Brissett as quarterback, a 3rd string rookie out of NC State (they won that game 27-0).

As soon as Brady came back, the wheels on the Brady and Belichick train started to churn for real. The Patriots went on to have a monstrous season, finishing with a record of 14-2. Surprisingly, Tom Brady was having one of his best seasons at the age of 39, throwing for 3,554 yards with 28 touchdowns and only 2 picks for the season. In Week 17, Brady moved ahead of former Miami quarterback Dan Marino into fourth place on the NFL’s all-time passing yards list after throwing for 276 yard against the Miami Dolphins. In the playoffs, the Patriots continued their dominance, defeating the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers by a combined score of 70-33. It was almost a Cinderella ending as the Patriots came back to beat the Falcons in one of the best Super Bowls to watch (well, only if you watched the fourth quarter). This gave the Patriots their NFL-record ninth Super Bowl appearance. It put a cherry on top of a memorable season for the team.

Whether you like them or not, the New England Patriots have shown what it takes to be great. You don’t have to have superstars or big name players to be successful. Tom Brady was the lowest ranked quarterback going into the 2000 NFL combine. The slow, lethargic kid from Michigan, that was selected in the sixth round of the NFL Draft just won his fifth super bowl. People can measure speed, strength, or agility, but you can’t measure heart.