Tom Brady’s Super Bowl 55 win with the Buccaneers already added to his legend. At 43, he won a Super Bowl in his first year with a new team, throwing for 201 yards and 3 touchdown in Tampa Bay’s 31-9 win against Kansas City. It was Brady’s sixth Super Bowl win and, several months later, new details make it look to be all the more impressive.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, himself following up on a report from the Tampa Bay Times‘ Rick Stroud, reported on Thursday that Brady won the Super Bowl while playing on a fully torn MCL. After the Super Bowl, he had surgery in February to repair the injury which he apparently first suffered during his last season with the Patriots and was only made worse with the Bucs. It was also the same knee he had a torn ACL in 2018.
#Bucs QB Tom Brady’s injury was actually more serious than that. It was a fully torn MCL, sources say, that required surgery following the Super Bowl win. https://t.co/jrSrzjXXWK
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 15, 2021
This is frankly crazy to consider. At his age, Brady already isn’t moving all that well beyond some movement in the pocket. A torn MCL only limits him further and almost certainly took away any scrambling ability he had. It’s also an injury that usually takes players out for several weeks, so whatever Brady did to make the injury tenable must have been intense and also kept under wraps since this never really leaked. It also makes his boat parade performance even more legendary, as it’s hard enough to stay on your feet while hammered on a boat, much less when one of your knees has a torn ligament.
Since the injury is now healed, he and Tampa Bay have to be feeling good about him continuing to play well next season and perhaps beyond with two fully functional knees instead of just one.