A week ago, Tom Brady sat on a beach and announced he was retiring from football “for good” this time.
That announcement brought about so many memories for fans that have had the opportunity to witness the greatest football player of all time compete on Sundays for the last 23 years.
The seven Super Bowls, come-from-behind victories and incredible throws all combined to make up the mystique of Brady. Today, we’re going to focus on the five greatest throws from the legendary quarterback during his tenure with the Patriots.
It was hard to resist the urge of making this list longer because Brady has so many highlight-worthy throws over the course of his career that could have easily made the cut. But it clearly isn’t as fun without a little challenge involved, and it was very challenging narrowing the list down to just five plays.
Brady’s dime of a throw to Danny Amendola in overtime of Super Bowl LI gets an honorable mention.
Brady to Danny Amendola in OT of SB51. pic.twitter.com/b7CAGYHYca
— Joe Montana’s Right Arm (@JoeMsrightarm) July 25, 2022
Please sound off on our social media pages (Facebook and Twitter) to share your top-five Brady throws. What did we get right, or what did we get wrong?
Here are Brady’s top-five throws ever with the Patriots.
5
Super Bowl LIII: Perfect throw against the vaunted Rams defense
OTD (2/3/2019): Tom Brady finds Rob Gronkowski on a beautiful throw and catch to set up the only TD of the game as the #Patriots defeated the #Rams 10-3 to win Super Bowl LIII pic.twitter.com/JdVeNLjj47
— The Sports Throne (@SportsThroneHub) February 3, 2022
If you weren’t a defensive person, you might consider Super Bowl LIII one of the most boring Super Bowls ever. The first touchdown wasn’t scored until later in the fourth quarter, and it was set up by this beautiful pass from Brady to tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Brady got too many bites at the apple, and he eventually made the Los Angeles Rams’ vaunted defense pay for it with a perfectly placed ball through multiple defenders.
We’ve seen it time and time again with quite possibly the greatest quarterback and tight end duo of all time. And this time, they got the job done on the biggest stage in sports.
4
2003 season: Walk-off touchdown in overtime against the Miami Dolphins
17 years ago today, Brady finds Troy Brown for an 82-yard OT touchdown for the Patriots (175 ML) to beat the Dolphins @betthepigskin
pic.twitter.com/IgkjVdcjqI— Barstool Sportsbook (@BSSportsbook) October 19, 2020
It’s always great to see the Patriots score a highlight reel victory over the Miami Dolphins, and the walk-off touchdown pass in overtime to Troy Brown back in the 2023 season is hard to top.
Brady took his time surveying the field from the pocket before stepping up and delivering an 82-yard knockout punch to the Dolphins at Miami. Soak this video all in because it isn’t often that you see Belichick this excited after a regular season victory.
Brown recently admitted this was his favorite Brady play.
3
Super Bowl XXXVI: Brady's first Super Bowl touchdown throw
Dime from @TomBrady.
Amazing catch by David Patten.Brady's first Super Bowl touchdown ever was a gem. 💎 (via @nflthrowback)
📺: #TBvsNE — Sunday 8:20pm ET on NBC
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/JNWD4exheW— NFL (@NFL) September 29, 2021
What a first Super Bowl touchdown throw by Brady with this corner of the endzone dart to the late, great David Patten.
On paper, the Patriots didn’t have a prayer of surviving against “The Greatest Show on Turf.” And yet, their defense held its own against one of the all-time great NFL offenses, while a young Brady stepped up and made some big throws in the Super Bowl.
In many ways, this was the game where the legend of Brady was born. His ability to step into the fire with the utmost confidence against a Rams team led by a Hall-of-Fame quarterback is one of the great moments in Patriots lore.
2
2007 season: Brady to Moss connection to stay perfect
December 29, 2007
Tom Brady throws his 50th TD pass and Randy Moss catches his 23rd TD pass of the season as the Patriots defeat the NY Giants (38-35) to finish the regular season undefeated
(16-0) pic.twitter.com/XvH7lehTOd
— Boston Sports Info (@bostonsportsinf) December 29, 2020
People tend to forget the New York Giants nearly ruined the Patriots’ perfect season before the dreaded Super Bowl XLII.
New England trailed in the fourth quarter of their regular season finale road game against the Giants, when Brady took the top off the defense with a touchdown bomb to Randy Moss.
What makes this throw even more impressive is the fact that Brady knew he was about to absorb a big hit in the pocket before releasing the ball. It was the play that saved the Patriots’ perfect regular season run and kept them as the only team in NFL history to ever finish with a 16-0 record.
1
2015 AFC Championship: Game-saving throw to Rob Gronkowski
I think this was my favorite Tom Brady throw ever.
4th and 10 vs. Denver in the AFC Championship.
Dime. pic.twitter.com/V4A7l4X9dl
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) February 1, 2023
The Patriots weren’t able to knock off the Denver Broncos in this game, but this ridiculous fourth-down throw from Brady kept them in it late. There are a number of throws that could have been put in this spot, but on this list, this throw to Gronkowski goes down as the best of Brady’s career.
It was a perfect lob over the top of a Broncos secondary that was so good it was dubbed the “No Fly Zone” on the field. Yet, Brady was finally able to crack them in the clutch and nearly lead the Patriots to a comeback win over Peyton Manning and company.
The degree of difficulty for a throw like this one is out of this world, but then again, Brady made them routinely in the biggest moments on the field.
