Roger Goodell's description of Tom Brady on Tuesday as merely "one of the greatest to ever play in the NFL" felt a little generous to the competition.
In the period of claim and counter-claim between reports of his retirement on Saturday and confirmation on Tuesday, the verdict had been cast – not that it was ever in doubt.
Among others, Patrick Mahomes, better placed than most to consider quality quarterback play, told ESPN: "His career is one of a kind. That's why he's the GOAT."
There is no dispute, no debate: Brady is the greatest.
The 44-year-old leads the way by most metrics, including the most important one, with an unprecedented seven Super Bowl championships.
Yet the stunning nature of some of those successes mean the emotional argument in Brady's favour is as convincing as the statistical one.
Unmoved by his NFL-record 84,520 passing yards? Try the Super Bowl LI comeback against the Atlanta Falcons.
This career had it all, and most dissenting voices had long since disappeared by the time Brady arrived in Tampa in 2020 "as the greatest football player of all time", as Bruce Arians put it. He still had another title in him.
But Brady has not just set the standard in the NFL for the past 22 years; his achievements are surely unmatched across the entire sporting world.
BEATING THE BEST
Wrestling with past legacies is never easy for an elite sports star. Even as the best of their generation, comparisons will be drawn with those who have gone before.
In the case of LeBron James in the NBA, Michael Jordan casts a long shadow.
James may now widely be considered the second-greatest player in the history of the league, but the gap to the number one spot scarcely seems to be closing, even now with titles and Finals MVP recognition on three different teams – and his own Space Jam sequel.
Elsewhere, Formula One's Lewis Hamilton has done what James could not with Jordan in matching Michael Schumacher's haul of titles.
But when Hamilton closed in on a record-breaking eighth drivers' championship in 2021, rival Sebastian Vettel scoffed: "Even if Lewis wins, to me Michael is still the greatest. Lewis can win one more, two more, three more, five more championships, but it doesn't change anything for me."
The combination of being unable to see two athletes side by side and having memories tinged with nostalgia makes life hard on the modern great.
For Brady, Joe Montana was the closest thing to a Jordan or Schumacher figure at quarterback.
Although Montana ranked sixth for all-time passing yards – Dan Marino, the 20th century's passing yards leader, never won a title – his four Super Bowls had matched Terry Bradshaw's benchmark and were still fresh enough in the memory in 2000, the last coming in the 1989 season.
Yet that was a gap Brady was swiftly able to bridge. By August 2005, with three rings already in his collection, the headline of a GQ profile asked if the Patriots passer was "the best there ever was".
At 27, 10 years younger than James and Hamilton are now, there appeared little doubt Brady would leave Marino behind.
TOP OF HIS CLASS
Perhaps Brady benefited from the standard of the competition. His career overlapped with Brett Favre at the start, Mahomes at the end and met with Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers somewhere around the middle, all of them forcing him to raise his game.
But such depth of talent can so easily muddy the waters.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have matched each other stride for stride, meaning there remains no consensus pick for football's 'GOAT'. Both merit the position, yet neither have dominated an era like Pele or Diego Maradona.
In tennis, the tussle is even more intense. Until Rafael Nadal's Australian Open triumph on Sunday, three men were tied on a record 20 grand slam titles.
Injuries to Roger Federer and coronavirus complications with Novak Djokovic may be enough to keep Nadal at the summit, but personal preference dictates the all-time rankings when the margins are so fine.
Again, however, Brady came through. None of those modern-day rivals have won three Super Bowls, let alone matching Montana's four or Brady's staggering seven.
Mahomes had appeared the most likely to challenge that mark in the years to come, but four seasons as a starter have now yielded one title. At the same point, Brady had three and that GQ headline.
"To win that many Super Bowls and win that many games, it's hard," Mahomes said after losing Sunday's AFC Championship Game. "I understand that. The years that I've had, I've been close a lot.
"I've only been there twice, and I've only won once. I understand it takes a special player ... for that to happen."
In Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Justin Herbert, Mahomes will not have it easy going forward either – an exciting new generation guarding Brady's legacy, not that he could not have done it himself had he chosen to play on.
Brady, in the regular season and playoffs, holds a 3-2 record against Mahomes, 4-0 against Allen and 1-0 against Herbert. He never faced Burrow, potentially the next Super Bowl-winning QB.
Instead, the perennial winner departs not as a champion – he has been that enough times – but as undoubtedly the best player his sport has ever seen. A rare phenomenon indeed.
Colts make edge rusher Latu first defensive player drafted at No. 15
The first defensive player is finally off the board.
The Indianapolis Colts ended the longest run of consecutive offensive players selected to start a draft by taking UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu with the eighth overall pick in Thursday's draft.
Latu arrives in the NFL after winning last year's Lombardi Award, which is given to the best collegiate lineman in the United States.
As a senior last year, he also won the Ted Hendricks Award, which is given to the nation's top defensive end.
A first-team All-American and the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, Latu will continue his football career in the NFL after it appeared his playing days were over just a few years ago.
While playing at Washington in 2020, Latu suffered a neck injury that required surgery and doctors did not clear him for the 2021 season forcing him to medically retire. He ended up transferring to UCLA, where he excelled on the field after being medically cleared.
In his first season with the Bruins in 2022, he was a first-team All-Pac 12 selection after registering the eighth-most sacks in the FBS with 10 ½.
He took a step forward in 2023, as he led the FBS with 21 ½ tackles for loss and his 13 sacks were tied for fourth in the nation.
Latu showed he can beat opposing offensive linemen in multiple ways, either using a quick first step to blow by them or overpowering them with his upper-body strength.
He plays with a high motor and has been playing with a chip on his shoulder for the last two years after being out of football for two years.
The Colts, who finished 9-8 in 2023, are now banking on his mindset and skillset succeeding in the NFL.
Prior to Indianapolis picking Latu, the latest the first defensive player was selected in the common draft era (1967) was in 2021, when the Carolina Panthers drafted South Carolina defensive back with the eighth pick.
Broncos select quarterback Nix at No. 12 as the run on QBs continues
Sean Payton got his man.
Payton has a new quarterback to run his offence after the Denver Broncos selected Oregon's Bo Nix with the 12th pick in NFL draft on Thursday.
In the weeks leading up to the draft, Nix had been linked to Denver, as he had been drawing comparisons to Drew Brees – the quarterback who flourished under Payton with the New Orleans Saints and the two won a Super Bowl together in 2009.
He now will likely get a chance to compete for the starting QB job in Denver after the Broncos released Russell Wilson in early March following an 8-9 finish in 2023.
Nix comes to Denver with plenty of experience of reading defences after starting an NCAA-record 61 games during his five years in college.
As a senior in 2023, Nix put up eye-popping numbers, leading the FBS with 45 touchdowns while throwing just three interceptions to finish third in Heisman Trophy voting.
He set an NCAA-single-season record for completion percentage at 77.4, and his 4,508 passing yards trailed only Michael Penix Jr. for the most in the United States.
Not only does Nix do an excellent job of protecting the football, as his interception rate of 0.6 ranked third out of 119 qualifying FBS quarterbacks, but he also excels in getting rid of the ball quickly and avoiding the sack.
Despite attempting 470 passes, he was sacked just five times – the fewest among the 44 quarterbacks with at least 350 pass attempts.
Showing poise in the pocket, Nix has superb touch on his passes, firing the ball out quickly from a variety of arm platforms.
Nix is the second quarterback acquired by the Broncos this week after the team traded for Zach Wilson from the New York Jets on Monday, and Nix is actually just a few months younger than Wilson, who was the second overall pick of the 2021 draft.
The 24-year-old Nix began his collegiate career at Auburn in 2019 and spent his first three years there before transferring to Oregon prior to the 2022 season.
In his collegiate career, Nix completed 66.4 per cent of his passes for 15,352 yards with 113 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
With Denver drafting Nix, this marks the first time in the history of the common draft (1967) that half of the first 12 picks were quarterbacks.
The last time six QBs were picked in the first round was the famous 1983 draft, when Hall of Famer and former Bronco John Elway, along with Hall of Famers Jim Kelly and Dan Mariano, as well as Todd Blackledge, Tony Eason and Ken O'Brien were selected in the opening round.
Vikings trade up to select quarterback McCarthy with 10th pick of NFL draft
J.J. McCarthy proved to be a winner at the collegiate level.
The Minnesota Vikings believe he has the intangibles to win in the NFL.
The Vikings moved up one spot to select McCarthy with the 10th pick in 2024 NFL draft on Thursday just over three months after he led Michigan to the FBS national title.
McCarthy shot up the draft boards after his savvy play in the national title game and drew comparisons to another former Michigan quarterback with a knack for winning in Tom Brady.
While he doesn't possess the same measurables as the four QBs selected ahead of him on Thursday, McCarthy makes the jump to the NFL as a national champion.
And although McCarthy wasn't asked to make as many big plays with his arm, he made clutch plays and the Vikings view him as someone who can help get the franchise back on track after a disappointing 2023.
The Vikings finished 7-10 last year, cycling through Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall at quarterback following Kirk Cousin's season-ending injury to a torn Achilles.
This is the earliest ever Minnesota has drafted a quarterback, and McCarthy will be competing with the recently acquired Sam Darnold for the starting QB job.
He steps into a terrific situation in Minnesota, as the Vikings have Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison at wide receiver and T.J. Hockenson at tight end.
A first-team All-Big Ten selection and a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award for the top collegiate quarterback in the United States, McCarthy threw for 2,991 yards with 22 touchdowns and four interceptions as a junior last season.
And while his passing numbers don’t jump off the page – he averaged just under 200 passing yards per game, while by comparison Michael Penix Jr. led the FBS with an average of 326.9 passing yards per game – he delivered accurate passes and didn’t make many mistakes was his throws.
In 2023, McCarthy ranked sixth in the FBS in completion percentage at 72.3 and 13th in yards per attempt at 9.01. His interception rate of 1.2 picks per every 100 pass attempts also ranked 10th out of 119 qualifying FBS quarterbacks.
Though he was largely a game manager in college, McCarthy has the skills to develop into a steady passer.
He also has the mentality of a winner, and the Vikings are counting on him to lead the franchise to its first ever Super Bowl title.
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