NFL great Tom Brady retires, insisting that this time it's 'for good'

Tom Brady owns every meaningful NFL passing record.

When it comes to retirement, though, the quarterback with seven Super Bowl rings doesn’t want to be an annual broken record.

A year after retiring and unretiring, Brady announced Wednesday that his playing career is done.

Looking somber and his voice cracking with emotion, Brady took to his social media accounts to share the news.

“Good morning, guys, I’ll get to the point right away: I’m retiring for good,” he said, while sitting on the beach, in a selfie-style video. “I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning I figured I’d just press record and let you guys know first. So I won’t be long-winded.

“I think you only get one super emotional retirement essay, and I used mine up last year. So, really, thank you guys, so much, to every single one of you, for supporting me. My family, my friends, teammates, my competitors, I could go on forever, there’s too many. Thank you, guys, for letting me live my absolute dream. I wouldn’t change a thing. Love you all.”

Brady, 45, retires with an unmatched seven Super Bowl rings, along with three Most Valuable Player awards, and a slew of records including most career wins, passing yards and passing touchdowns. He earned the nickname GOAT, short for Greatest Of All Time.

Brady is the NFL’s career leader in yards passing (89,214) and touchdowns (649). He’s the only player to win more than five Super Bowls and has been MVP of the game five times.

Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen finalized their divorce last fall, during the Bucs’ season. It ended a 13-year marriage between two superstars who reached the pinnacles of football and fashion, respectively.

As was the case a year ago, when Brady announced his retirement from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the praise poured in from all corners of the sports world.

“Congratulations Tom on an incredible career,” Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, now a “Monday Night Football” analyst, posted on Instagram. “You did it the old-fashion way — you earned all of it. I was fortunate to have called some of your biggest games and I look forward to you doing the same for some of the game’s future greats on Fox. Much respect (GOAT emoji).”

It was announced last year that when Brady retired from playing, he would join Fox Sports as a television analyst in a 10-year, $375-million deal.

Exactly what Brady’s role at Fox will be is unclear. Greg Olsen, in his first season as the analyst on Fox’s No. 1 broadcast team, has gotten rave reviews, so the network might be reluctant to take him out of the booth he shares with Kevin Burkhardt. They will call the upcoming Super Bowl.

The timing of Brady’s announcement is interesting because it came during the down week before the ramp-up to the Feb. 12 Super Bowl, and a day after the quarterback attended the premiere of “80 for Brady,” the story of four lifelong friends — played by Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field — who attended a Super Bowl to watch him play.

Brady won his first six rings as quarterback of the New England Patriots. It was against the St. Louis Rams that Brady won his inaugural Lombardi Trophy, replacing the injured Drew Bledsoe in Week 2 of the regular season then leading the Patriots to an improbable march through the playoffs and a 20-17 victory in Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans.

Brady played in 10 Super Bowls, twice as many as John Elway, who is next on that list.

It’s a testament to Brady’s spectacular success that for every time Elway appeared in a Super Bowl, Brady has a Super Bowl MVP award to his name.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.