Patriots unveil statue honoring iconic quarterback Tom Brady
The ceremony revealed a towering bronze image of Brady with one arm aloft in triumph, the likeness mounted on a six-sided base in a nod to his championship seasons with the Pats.
The total 17-foot height marks the 17 AFC East division titles that Brady won as a starting quarterback.
He went on to win a seventh Super Bowl title with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he'll be forever linked to the Patriots -- a fact that team owner Robert Kraft acknowledged when Brady was inducted into the team's Hall of fame last year.
"This is quite overwhelming to me," the 48-year-old said. "I feel extremely honored, deeply grateful and, if I'm being honest, kind of old.
"I'm also a little surprised, because usually they don't build statues until you're really old, like (Mike) Vrabel and (Tedy) Bruschi.
Vrabel, a former Brady teammate now in his first season as head coach of the Pats, was at the ceremony.
Brady, who was taken 199th overall in the 2000 draft and was the fourth-string quarterback before emerging as a superstar, poked a little fun at himself, too.
"I never dreamed I'd be standing here two and a half decades later made of bronze and frozen in time," he said.
"It actually feels pretty appropriate given my 40-yard dash time."
Brady's statue was revealed before the Patriots' pre-season game against the Washington Commanders. It stands in the plaza outside the Patriots Hall of Fame.
Across 23 seasons, three with Tampa Bay, Brady started in 333 regular season matchups and 48 playoff games -– the most of any NFL quarterback –- with 278 wins overall, another league record unlikely to be touched for years to come.
The three-time NFL Most Valuable Player holds the league records for completions (7,753), pass attempts (12,050), passing yards (89,214) and touchdown passes (649).
"Tom Brady's journey proves that it's not where you start, but where you finish that counts," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in remarks opening the ceremony.
"Tom wasn't just the face of our franchise, he was the heartbeat. It's hard to overstate what Tom accomplished. He didn't just rewrite the record books, he practically authored a new volume. This statue ensures his legacy will be preserved for generations to come."
bb/js
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
2 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Preston Judd scores in second-half stoppage time to lift Earthquakes over Whitecaps 2-1
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Preston Judd scored in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time to rally the San Jose Earthquakes to 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night. Judd subbed in for Josef Martínez in the 81st minute and used assists from defenders DeJuan Jones and Jamar Ricketts to score for the fourth time this season. Jones' helper was his career-high fifth after notching three through his first 157 appearances. Ricketts collected his third for San Jose (8-10-8) in his first full season in the league.
New York Times
2 minutes ago
- New York Times
Now healthy, Blake Snell is making his impression with a suddenly strong Dodgers rotation
LOS ANGELES — How important is a good first impression? That's what Blake Snell was trying to figure out as he started his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, his shoulder aching and the ink not quite yet dry on the premium free-agent contract he'd been seeking for years. A self-created urge to pitch well for his new team pushed him to pitch through discomfort, he revealed only after he went on the injured list after just two starts. Advertisement Instead, he had to wait four months between starts at Dodger Stadium. His second go-around at a first impression looked a lot more like the guy the Dodgers doubled down on their prodigious offseason spending to get. The left-hander looked like the guy who has claimed two Cy Youngs, whose electric stuff is a certifiable ceiling-raiser over five dominant, scoreless innings in a 9-1 win against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night. Maybe he won't punctuate getting a five-year, $182 million contract with a season worthy of consideration for a third trophy as the best pitcher in the sport. Instead, he could very well be the most important arm in getting the Dodgers where they want to be to repeat in October. 'I think for me, that whole first impression narrative is over,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday afternoon. 'He needs to pitch well. … All he cares about, all I care about is him pitching well. I don't care about the contract. I care about winning. Now it's time to just kind of win baseball games.' Snell's bothersome left shoulder is healthy. That much has been clear through two starts back from the injured list. He also appears to be gearing up for the kind of second-half run he had last summer for the San Francisco Giants, when he had a 1.45 ERA in 12 starts after the All-Star break to set up his big payday. This is what the Dodgers are hoping for. 'When Blake's on, he's really, really tough to hit,' said Michael Conforto, Snell's teammate a year ago with San Francisco as well. 'As tough as anybody. It's pretty close to what we were seeing last year when he was really, really dominant.' Dodger Stadium's subwoofers had hardly stopped reverberating to a Kendrick Lamar track by the time Snell completed a crisp, nine-pitch first inning that required just six pitches for his first two strikeouts. His fastball touched 98.4 mph to get out of the second inning. A Blue Jays lineup that entered the day striking out at the lowest clip in the sport (17.1 percent) fanned 10 times in just 21 hitters. They flailed at breaking balls in the dirt. They chased fastballs above the letters. A changeup fooled Alejandro Kirk badly enough in the second inning that it brought the stout catcher down to a knee. Another in the third inning fooled Ernie Clement badly enough that the bat flew at warp speed into the Dodgers dugout. 'Blake was Blake Snell,' catcher Dalton Rushing said. 'He had everything working. He executed the offspeed and executed his fastballs to spots early in the count. Caught hitters in between, and that's kind of what he does.' It wasn't perfect. Snell lamented his fastball command, which faded as the start went along. He dealt with traffic, requiring 27 pitches and surviving a pair of base runners to get out of the third inning as he searched for mental cues to correct the issue. That ultimately cut his outing short, limiting his dominance to five innings with room for much more with his pitch count at 90. Advertisement 'Just the fastball command,' Snell said. 'If it's better, then a lot changes.' Still, it was more than good enough. The Dodgers paid Snell to whiff, getting the type of swing-and-miss they know will function in October. Snell got 18 of them on Saturday after 19 in his preceding start. The MLB all-time leader in strikeouts per nine innings put on a showcase to change whatever impression four months on the shelf could create. The only runs he's allowed in his return came on two home run balls that left George H. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa and would've made it out of few others. This is the version of Snell everyone envisioned. 'When you're getting chase on balls that are out of the zone, it just speaks to his stuff looks like a strike,' Roberts said. 'That's one of Blake's hallmarks, getting the swing-and-miss, the chase, and then when he needs to flood the zone and beat guys, he can do that, too.' It's also creating a situation in August that last year's World Series champions would've envied this time a year ago when they were scrambling for starters. Their ideal rotation for October is currently healthy and largely rounding into form. Tyler Glasnow, an All-Star a year ago who threw his final pitch that season on Aug. 11, is back after a similarly long absence to Snell's and is showcasing premium stuff. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was working his way back from shoulder trouble this time last year; now, the second-year starter (and first-time All-Star) could wind up on Cy Young ballots. And add in Shohei Ohtani, whose buildup from a second major elbow surgery has gone brilliantly and who might be pitching the best of any of them right now. Emmet Sheehan is looking like a potential October weapon. There's Snell, the free-agent addition who is back and pitching well. Even Clayton Kershaw, who threw his final pitch last year on Aug. 30, is pitching his way to a 3.14 ERA right now despite a fastball that sits below 90 mph on average. Advertisement 'Honestly, right now, watching everybody, it's a lot better than I thought we were going to be,' Snell said. 'This staff's stacked.' It's a position group that could carry the Dodgers down this stretch run, particularly as they wait around for their bullpen to get healthy this time around. 'Every night you see the probables and you feel like (you) really have a chance to prevent runs,' Roberts said. 'Then you look at the lineup and you feel we have an opportunity to score. Then you've got to go play the game. This is how we can go on a run.' If Snell continues to look like this, it'll be a more lasting impression than any one he could have crafted in April. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Washington Post
4 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Olympian Asher Hong rolls to second national title at the U.S. gymnastics championships
NEW ORLEANS — Asher Hong cruised to his second national title in men's gymnastics on Saturday, pulling away from the field for an easy victory at the U.S. Championships. The 21-year-old Hong, part of the five-man team that earned bronze at the Paris Olympics last summer, posted a two-day total of 170.020 to win easily despite a rare miscue on the high bar during the first rotation on Saturday.
