The new NFL season begins tonight with the game of defending champion Los Angeles Rams against the Buffalo Bulls. She will be superstar Tom Brady's last. His farewell tour will also take him to Munich in November. If he doesn't have to regulate "personal things".
The resignation was spectacular enough, but then there were those 11 days in August when Tom Brady suddenly disappeared from Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp. It was officially said that he had "personal things" to regulate. In fact, there is said to have been a dispute with his wife Gisele Bundchen because of his about-face. And Brady's time off reportedly served as an impromptu reconciliation vacation in the Bahamas.
So nothing stands in the way of what is probably the last season of the most successful football player in history. Brady, head coach Todd Bowles emphasized, is in "all-in mode". Means: The farewell tour, which will take the 45-year-old superstar to Munich on November 13 for the game against the Seattle Seahawks, is scheduled to end on February 12, 2023 in Glendale near Phoenix with his eighth and then last victory in the Superbowl.
Brady and the Bucs start the season on Sunday with a home game against the Dallas Cowboys, but the 103rd season of the National Football League (NFL) begins today with the Buffalo Bills' game at defending champion Los Angeles Rams (Friday, 2.20 Clock/ProSieben and DAZN). Brady will be his team's starting quarterback for the 20th time in the opening game, again a new record for the "GOAT", the "Greatest of All Time".
The fact that Brady then comes to Germany in November has mainly to do with the expansion plans of the NFL: Commissioner Roger Goodell has promised the 32 club owners to increase the league's sales to 25 billion dollars by 2027, an ambitious goal. Last year sales were $11 billion in the US and just over $3 billion internationally. The game in Munich will be followed by three more games on German soil in alternation with Frankfurt until 2025.
An increase in revenue is also urgently needed as player salaries are skyrocketing. Quarterbacks are the big earners. Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers) will be paid $50.27 million a year, Russell Wilson, who switched from the Seahawks to the Denver Broncos, will be paid an average of $48.51 million, Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals at 46, 1 million dollars.
Of course, Deshaun Watson's new contract caused the most discussion. The Cleveland Browns are paying the former Houston Texans quarterback a guarantee of $230 million over the next five years - despite knowing that he has been accused of sexual harassment by many women. After Watson was initially suspended for six games, the NFL increased the mandatory break to 11 games.
Brady's alleged family troubles with former supermodel Bundchen seem harmless by comparison. His salary for his last season of $15 million is also small compared to others, as is the total of $333 million he has earned as a player in his career so far. However, Brady will not have to gnaw on the hunger pangs: The TV broadcaster Fox will now pay him a total of 375 million dollars for ten years of expert work from 2023.
Assuming Brady doesn't piss off Gisele Bundchen again next spring.
