Photo Credit: Stew Milne/ USA TODAY Sports
Remember a week ago when everyone said that Tom Brady was washed up and should retire? Well he sure made all those people look stupid with his performance on Sunday night against the Cincinnati Bengals. Brady threw for almost 300 yards and two touchdowns. A much different statistical night than the numbers he put up against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night.
His team got the win and Brady entered an exclusive club. He joins five other quarterbacks who have thrown for 50,000 yards. When asked about the accomplishment, Brady said it was “awesome”. He seemed more excited to get his team back on the winning track. He must have breathed a sigh of relief when he connected with tight end Rob Gronkowski for a touchdown.
Brady was not the only future Hall of Fame quarterback to celebrate a milestone. Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning had reason to celebrate as he became only the second quarterback in NFL history to throw 500 touchdown passes. The only other quarterback was Brett Favre who thew 508 in his career. Manning now has 503 which means he will likely become the NFL’s all-time leader in touchdown passes this season. Manning already holds multiple records after his spectacular season last year in which he ran the NFL’s number one ranked offense.
Manning was not outwardly excited about his accomplishment. Instead he tried to put in perspective, “Throwing touchdowns is a part of playing football. But I guess for me, throwing touchdowns has helped teams I’ve been a part of win a lot of football games. I don’t think I’ve thrown a lot of touchdowns that didn’t mean something. Any time you have a big lead, all the years I played in Indianapolis, the coaches would always take us out, and if we were getting bad they’d take us out, so any ones that I’ve thrown usually resulted in our team trying to win the game or win the game, so I think about it that way.”
He might not have been too excited, but his teammates and head coach were plenty excited for him. Julius Thomas, who caught Manning’s 500th touchdown pass as well as his 51st touchdown pass last season that set the single season record, said he is “fortunate” to have been a part of Maning’s history. Denver head coach John Fox called it incredible.
Great for both of them. I just laugh when people talk about their age and abilities, especially about Brady. 2 legends in the making, and what a legacy they will leave behind.