Tom Brady deserves to be considered among sporting greats such as Michael Jordan, Rafael Nadal and LeBron James, according to his former New England Patriots team-mate Eric Rowe.
The quarterback announced his retirement on Tuesday after a 22-year career that saw him win an unprecedented seven Super Bowl titles, six with the Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Rowe played alongside Brady at Gillette Stadium for three seasons between 2016 and 2019, and said the 44-year-old belongs in the conversation with the great sporting icons.
"Oh, man, he's right there," Rowe said in an exclusive interview with Stats Perform.
"You say Serena [Williams], Nadal, you could say Michael Jordan, you could say LeBron [James] you could say Kobe [Bryant], you're definitely saying Tom Brady. He's definitely in that little name bucket."
Rowe, now at the Miami Dolphins, was also asked what words come to mind when it comes to Brady, with the first unsurprisingly being "championships", with the safety clarifying: "because he's won so many in our era, at least in my era.
"Then I think just 'leadership'. One of the greatest players, he had a lot of, I wouldn't say heat, but people kind of question, 'he has been at the Patriots for some 20 odd years, and then he can't do it anywhere else'.
"He went to another team and brought them a championship. So that just shows how much leadership he has within himself."
Rowe also outlined what set Brady apart from the rest and what his legacy will mean for the NFL.
"Yeah, his legacy. Obviously, his name is going to live on forever. Just as players, you know who way back then, how their name still comes around today.
"And people, even kids [who] obviously didn't grow up watching them know who they are, so his name, 20, 30 years from now [people will say] 'oh, yeah, Tom Brady'.
"You know, still one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, so his legacy's gonna live on."
Brady retires with 243 QB wins, meaning an incredible margin to second-placed pair Peyton Manning and Brett Favre on 186.
In fact, Brady has 69 wins in the month of December alone. In terms of a single month, Favre is next, with 52 wins also in December.
Brady has the best record among QBs with at least 100 starts, his .769 again comfortably ahead of the next-best performance, Roger Staubach's .746.
The 2021 season was Brady's 19th different campaign with 3,000 passing yards – clear of Favre's 18 – and his fifth 4,000-yard season just since he turned 40.
Hall of Famers Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Staubach and Steve Young combined for three seasons with 4,000 passing yards for their careers.
Cousins 'proud' of Falcons' fight after dramatic comeback win
Kirk Cousins earned his first win at the Atlanta Falcons with a comeback win in the final minute of the game, and he believes it will only build their resolve.
The Falcons beat the Philadelphia Eagles 22-21, with Cousins picking out Drake London with 34 seconds left to snatch the victory.
At 21-15 down with less than two minutes on the clock, the quarterback completed 5 of 6 passes on a six-play, 70-yard drive before London finished it off. Younghoe Kim then converted a lengthy extra point to ensure they would not need to go to overtime.
And while Cousins was pleased to get off the mark with his new team, he thinks the nature of the win will benefit the Falcons in the long run.
"It's really, really important for us to be able to come in here and get a win," Cousins said. "Just proud of the way we kept playing, kept fighting.
"Coming from behind. Finding a way on the road in a tough environment against a good football team [makes it special].
"That builds resolve, builds some grit, builds some character that we're gonna have to lean on as the year goes on. This is how NFL football is.
"We've got to kind of get used to this and get comfortable in this because that's how these games tend to go.
"The more we can be battle-tested and have these moments, I think it will set us up well for what's coming down the road."
The game could have gone much differently if Philadelphia had completed a play with five-and-a-half minutes on the clock, but Saquon Barkley failed to catch Jalen Hurts' short pass inside the Atlanta 10.
The Eagles then settled for Jake Elliott's 28-yard field goal to take a six-point lead, before the Falcons' late show denied them a second win of the season.
"I dropped the ball," Barkley told reporters. "Let my team down today. Shouldn't have put the defense in that position.
"If I make the catch, game's over. Relax, get back to my old habits, and just gotta go back and get to work.
"I thought it was a great play call. I just gotta make that catch."
Both teams now hold a 1-1 record for the season. Atlanta face Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs next time out, while the Eagles travel to the New Orleans Saints.
NFL: Falcons stun Eagles on late touchdown
Kirk Cousins threw two second-half touchdown passes, including the go-ahead score to Drake London with 34 seconds remaining, to earn his first win as an Atlanta Falcon with a 22-21 comeback victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday.
With his new team down 21-15 with under two minutes left, Cousins completed 5 of 6 passes on a six-play, 70-yard drive he capped with a 7-yard strike to London in the final minute. Younghoe Kim then converted a lengthy extra-point try from 48 yards out, with the distance increased due to a 15-yard penalty called on London after the touchdown, to break a 21-21 tie.
Jessie Bates sealed the win for Atlanta (1-1) by intercepting Jalen Hurts with 19 seconds left to send the partisan crowd at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field home stunned.
Cousins finished with 241 yards on 20-of-29 passing in his second start since signing a four-year, $180 million contract with the Falcons in March. Darnell Mooney, another of Atlanta's offseason additions, caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Cousins in the third quarter and ended with 88 yards on three catches.
Hurts threw for 183 yards and a touchdown and added another TD on the ground while recording 85 rushing yards. His 1-yard touchdown run on the Eagles' patented "Tush Push" quarterback sneak play gave Philadelphia (1-1) an 18-15 lead with 6:47 remaining after Saquon Barkley successfully ran in the ensuing 2-point conversion.
The Eagles appeared headed for a third straight 2-0 start after stuffing Atlanta's Bijon Robinson on a 4th-and-1 run on the following possession to get the ball back at the Falcons' 39-yard line with 5:38 to go.
Philadelphia then moved to the Atlanta 10, but Barkley dropped a short pass from Hurts on third down and the Eagles settled for Jake Elliott's 28-yard field goal and a six-point lead with 1:39 left.
Cousins responded by quickly driving the Falcons inside the Eagles' 10 with four consecutive completions, including gains of 21 and 26 yards to Mooney.
Mooney had given the Falcons a 15-10 edge late in the third quarter when he got behind Philadelphia's defence and hauled in a deep pass from Cousins for a 41-yard score. Atlanta failed to convert the resulting 2-point attempt.
The Eagles also came up empty in the red zone early in the contest, passing up a short field goal try from the Atlanta 9-yard line and throwing an incomplete pass on 4th-and-4 that kept the game scoreless after one quarter.
Atlanta opened the scoring on Koo's 39-yard field goal with 11:22 left in the second, but the Eagles answered with an 11-play, 70-yard drive culminating in Hurts' 7-yard touchdown pass to Devonta Smith.
The Falcons pulled within 7-6 at half-time after Koo's 22-yard field goal ended a 15-play series. Another Koo field goal, a 34-yard kick, put Atlanta in front early in the third quarter before Philadelphia took a 10-9 lead on Elliott's 29-yard field goal with 4:28 left in the period.
Barkley rushed for 95 yards on 22 attempts in his first home game since leaving the NFC East-rival New York Giants for the Eagles in the offseason. Robinson had 97 rushing yards for Atlanta on 14 carries.
Panthers bench struggling quarterback Young
The Carolina Panthers are making a quarterback change following their 0-2 start, benching 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young in favour of veteran Andy Dalton for Sunday’s road matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Young has struggled mightily in his NFL career after Carolina acquired the top overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft from the Chicago Bears and used it to pick the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner out of the University of Alabama.
The 23-year-old Young has gone 2-16 in 18 starts while completing 59.3 percent of his pass attempts and throwing for 3,122 yards with 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions for a passer rating of 70.9.
Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Young’s completion percentage is the worst among qualifying quarterbacks and his passer rating ranks second-to-last.
The decision by first-year Panthers coach Dave Canales to switch quarterbacks comes after Young posted a 44.1 rating and passed for 245 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions in a pair of losses to open 2024.
Carolina has been outscored 73-13 and scored just one touchdown on a three-yard run by Young in Week 1.
Dalton started in Week 3 last season with Young out due to an ankle injury and threw for 361 yards with two touchdowns in a 37-27 loss at the Seattle Seahawks.
Six weeks shy of his 37th birthday, Dalton ranks 26th in NFL history with 38,511 passing yards and 28th with 246 touchdowns through the air.
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