When Tom Brady officially announced his retirement Feb.1, Boston lost part of its soul.
“This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore,” Brady, who spent the majority of his career with the New England Patriots, wrote on social media. “I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention.”
Shortly after, Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft issued a statement expressing his personal and professional gratitude towards Brady.
“A generation of football fans have grown up knowing only an NFL in which Tom Brady dominated,” Kraft wrote. “I have the greatest respect for Tom personally and always will.”
Brady’s retirement marked the end of an era in the NFL, and it meant more for his fans in Boston, many of whom grew up watching the legend score touchdowns and win Super Bowls for the Commonwealth.
“Ever since we were kids it was always like ‘Brady, Brady, Brady!’ so it’s definitely weird that he’s not on the Patriots anymore. It almost feels like they’re not even the Patriots,” Dunya Shahin, who grew up in Boston, said.
What makes Brady a legend isn’t just the seven Super Bowl wins and three MVP awards, it’s his unlikely story going from an unknown in the 2000 draft to one of the league’s all-time greats.
“Not only was he able to place a role in the NFL, but he became arguably the greatest ever to play the position,” A. Sherrod Blakely, a Boston University lecturer at the College of Communications and sports journalist covering New England’s teams, said. “That’s a really big part of what connected people to him and from a NFL stance, to go from humble beginnings to become the face of the league and playing for a winning team.”
Blakely said he thinks Brady has had a significant impact on Bostonians because he created a sense of comradery and became a source of pride for fans.
“I remember exactly which one but it was the Super Bowl, and we were down, and [Brady] clutched up and got the W,” said Listch Prinston, a lifetime Boston resident and an avid Patriots fan. “That was a very impactful moment because he didn’t give up and I was just happy he did that.”
When Blakely thinks of Brady, he thinks of an image of the quarterback surrounded by “confetti” holding up the Lombardi Trophy.
“He absolutely created a sense of pride for [the Boston] community because they know that as long as Tom Brady was around, the Super Bowl was either coming at that moment or coming soon,” Blakely said.
The Greatest Bar, a well-known sports bar in the heart of Boston, has been hosting watch parties for sporting events for the past 15 years, including Patriots games. Julie Fairweather, the owner of the bar, said the games garnered a large turnout.
Fairweather described how patrons had a strong sense of loyalty to Brady even after he left the Patriots.
“What I’ve seen is that people are so loyal to Tom Brady that they also cheer for the Buccaneers because he is playing for them,” Fairweather said.
The Greatest Bar even has a large mural of Brady on the wall of the restaurant.
“I think he started the run of Boston becoming a championship city,” Fairweather said. “He just created a lot of great memories for the city of Boston and Patriots fans.”
Adam Sergentanis, a junior in the Questrom School of Business and a local who grew up watching Brady play, said he was “very surprised and very sad” at the news of Brady’s retirement.
“I was hoping it would never happen,” Sergentanis said. “He’s been playing football since before I was alive so to be in a world without him playing football has been a major change for a lot of us. I think everyone is just sad now–our hero is gone.”
Owen Gund, a junior in College of Communication and a sports reporter for WTBU, noted the absence of Brady from sports talk will be felt.
“I do WTBU sports radio show once a week, and we talk about football all the time,” Gund said. “Not being able to talk about Brady will be pretty sad for me as someone who’s been a big fan of him for a long time.”
Just like any other Bostonians who grew up watching Brady play for the Patriots, Gund expressed his sadness and mixed emotions towards his retirement.
“Not having him out there to watch, it really kind of feels like the end of an era,” Gund said. “It’s sad to see him retire because he’s created a lot of great memories for me as a Boston sports fan.”
