Editor’s Note/Update: This article was completed before Tom Brady announced late on Sunday, March 13, that he wasn’t actually retiring. UPDATE: He’s back!

By Hayden Rollison

“This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore. I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention.” 

Future football Hall of Famer Tom Brady announced his retirement via Instagram on Feb. 1 with these precise words. Brady, who is debated to be the best football player in NFL history, declared his retirement to his 11.2 million followers on Instagram, thanking his family, friends, coaches, and the fanbase of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

A few days earlier on Thursday, Jan. 27, fellow quarterback and future NFL Hall of Famer Ben “Big Ben” Roethlisberger announced his retirement. After 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Big Ben decided to hang up the cleats. Roethlisberger walked off Heinz Field in Pittsburgh for the last time on Jan. 3 after beating the Cleveland Browns 26-14. Although he hadn’t formally announced his retirement, his family joined him with emotions, as they knew it was his last night walking off Heinz field in the black and gold.  However, with the win over the Browns, the Steelers advanced to the Wild Card game, where Big Ben played his last NFL game, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs 42-21 on Jan. 16. Roethlisberger posted his retirement video via Twitter on Jan. 27. He stated:

Big Ben sitting in the pocket against the Washington Football Team on Dec. 7, 2020. Photo credit: All-Pro Reels from District of Colombia, USA.

“The journey has been exhilarating, defined by relationships, and fueled by a spirit of competition. Yet, the time has come to clean out my locker, hang up my cleats, and continue to be all I can be to my wife and children. I retire from football a truly grateful man.”

Some say that the retirement of Brady and Roethlisberger is the end of an era in the NFL. Both quarterbacks had an “old school” style in the quarterback position, and they helped define the position over the last 20 years. 

Brady was drafted in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. He wasn’t the highest-rated quarterback in the draft, and it was a surprise that he was even drafted as the 199th pick by the Patriots, since the organization had just signed Drew Bledsoe to a 10-year contract before the draft. After Bledsoe got injured in the first few weeks, Brady got his chance. In his first season, Brady led the Patriots to a Super Bowl in 2001, winning his first Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP. The dynasty of  “The GOAT” had just begun. 

Roethlisberger, on the other hand, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers 11th overall in the 2004 draft from Miami University in Ohio. Upper School government and economics teacher and die-hard Steelers fan Robert Wedge felt that “spending a first-round draft pick on a quarterback was a really good decision” for the Steelers organization, since they had not won a Super Bowl since 1980. Similar to Brady, Roethlisberger was deep on the depth chart his rookie season and didn’t get his opportunity until the quarterbacks ahead of him were injured. In week two of the 2004 season, Roethlisberger’s legacy in the NFL had begun. 

Roethlisberger won the first seven games that he started–an NFL record. One of these wins came against Brady and the Patriots, who had a 21 game regular-season winning streak. Roethlisberger played like a veteran, pulling off a 34-20 victory on Oct. 31, 2004. 

Roethlisberger took the Steelers to his first Super Bowl in 2006 against the Seattle Seahawks, having built a championship-caliber franchise in Pittsburgh in only two seasons. He became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, at 23 years old with a win over the Seahawks 21-10.

Brady took the Patriots to his second Super Bowl victory in 2004, where he won his second Super Bowl MVP. The following year, the Patriots won the Super Bowl again, winning in back-to-back years. Brady was dominating the NFL in his first few seasons. 

Brady did encounter problems during his career, though. In 2008, Brady tore his ACL, taking him out of an entire season for the first time. The Patriots still made it to the Super Bowl without Brady in 2008. 

Like Brady, Big Ben also encountered setbacks from football when he faced a lawsuit for sexual assault in 2009 and again in 2010. In 2008, Andrea McNulty, an employee of a hotel Roethlisberger had stayed in, accused him of raping her when he asked her to fix his television. Roethlisberger denied this allegation and ended up in court, where the case was settled in 2012. In 2010, a college student accused Roethlisberger of raping her in a bathroom of a nightclub in Georgia. The student did not press charges, but the NFL took action, originally suspending Roethlisberger for six games which soon was reduced to four games of the 2011 season. The faith of Pittsburgh fans in Roethlisberger started to decline after these allegations. Wedge stated that “as a husband and a father, I was angry at him in 2010. It took him some time to win back my trust, because a quarterback is the leader of a football team.” 

Brady playing for the New England Patriots in 2019. Photo credit: Alexander Jonesi.

In Brady’s career in New England, he took the Patriots to 10 Super Bowls in his 20 seasons, winning six rings. In March 2020, after his contract had expired with New England, Brady signed a two-year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When asked about his thoughts about Brady leaving Tampa Bay, Wedge stated that “you want to feel valued and want to feel respected by your employer. I don’t know if Brady was feeling that way about Bill Belicheck.” In Tampa Bay, of course, Brady took the Bucs to their second Super Bowl in his first year, as he ended up winning MVP again. He became the only quarterback to start a Super Bowl win for a team in both conferences, just one of his many records. Other records include most total passing yards (84,520), most regular-season wins (243), most Super Bowl MVP awards (5), most touchdown passes (624), and more. 

During Roethlisberger’s 18 seasons, all with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he went to three Super Bowls, winning two of them, 2006 and 2009, both during his first four years in the NFL. Although Roethlisberger has had success in the NFL, his reputation became problematic. Steelers fans were sad to see Big Ben leave at his final game at Heinz Field on Jan. 3. 

As Brady and Roethlisberger retire, they are retiring the “old school” style of football which they defined. Although Brady joined Tampa Bay for his last two seasons, both quarterbacks played for a single organization for the majority of their careers, a rarity in the 21st-century professional sports world. Their legacies are tied to the future of football.

Featured image credit: All-Pro-Reels via Flickr.