Who had 48-year-old Tom Brady throwing a touchdown with Raising Cane’s across his chest on their bingo card?
The Team USA flag football team dominated the past and present NFL stars during the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic on Saturday afternoon.
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Brady is likely furious that he will not add a Fanatics Flag Football Classic trophy to his overloaded trophy mantel. His Founders FFC team lost to Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels’ Wildcats FFC, who then lost to Team USA in the championship matchup. But Brady should be happy with his performance.
In Founders FFC’s first matchup against Team USA, Brady showed impressive (and surprising) elusiveness to avoid a sack on a free rusher. He reset and threw an absolute seed to Stefon Diggs in the back corner of the end zone on 4th-and-goal from 20-plus yards out.
It marked Brady’s first touchdown pass since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 31-14 NFC Wild Card loss on Jan. 16, 2023. Brady retired “for good” from the NFL a few weeks later.
It’s not surprising that the greatest quarterback alive is still great at quarterbacking. But Brady wasn’t necessarily known as a mobile QB. He finished with 1,123 yards across an NFL-record 333 games. There is now a literal statue outside of the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium, but Brady was known as a statuesque quarterback long before that. His cerebral approach is what made him great.
Last week, Brady visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and couldn’t contain his competitive nature, even for a flag football game.
“I get to go out there and try to kick their butt once again and remind them who the boss is,” Brady said of his younger opponents, adding, “I texted Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels. They’re the opposing quarterbacks. I said, ‘You know, I love beating Heisman Trophy winners.’ I was the 199th pick, and I always took dead aim at the guys who were picked way ahead of me. They said, ‘Talk that you-know-what and bring it on.”
Fanatics CEO and founder Michael Rubin appeared on FS1’s First Things First on Wednesday to promote the Fanatics Flag Football Classic. Rubin said he wouldn’t put it past Brady to compete for a spot on the U.S. flag football team at LA28, the 2028 Summer Olympics hosted in Los Angeles.
“I don’t want to speak for Tom,” Rubin said. “What I can tell you is, I believe that, today, he’d be a top quarterback in the NFL if he wanted to play. I see him practice. He’s been sending me videos. He’s still at an elite level. He’s in great shape.”
Rubin added, “You can’t break Tom Brady.”
Brady wasn’t broken on Saturday, but he and all other NFL stars were thoroughly beaten by Team USA.
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