Tom Brady

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' season looked over for 59 minutes and 51 seconds of game time during Sunday's contest against the Los Angeles Rams.

And then Tom Brady reminded everyone why he is the greatest of all time.

The 45-year-old quarterback threw the game-winning touchdown to Cade Otton with nine seconds remaining to propel his Buccaneers to a 16-13 victory over the Rams. The offense looked broken all game and then drove 60 yards on six plays in 35 seconds against a Rams defense that inexplicably played a soft prevent after controlling the rest of the contest.

Social media was quick to give Brady his flowers:

For much of the game, it seemed like Tampa Bay was well on its way to a fourth consecutive loss and a 3-6 record. Brady threw the ball 58 times and still only accounted for 280 yards and one touchdown, but it was that one touchdown that proved to be the difference.

He started the drive with a long pass to Otton, found Scotty Miller twice and threw the winner to the tight end. Miller may have been the only player happier than Brady, as he dropped a potential go-ahead touchdown on the previous Tampa Bay drive.

The Rams went three-and-out on their possession following Miller's drop, which gave Brady one more chance to turn things around. He took full advantage, and the 4-5 Buccaneers are still in the middle of the NFC playoff picture.

Brady also became the first quarterback in NFL history with more than 100,000 passing yards (including the playoffs), although he has accounted for more than one touchdown just one time all season.

That was enough Sunday, and he will look to keep the momentum rolling with an upcoming game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has become the first player in NFL history to reach 100,000 passing yards, as he eclipsed the mark with a pass to Leonard Fournette in the fourth quarter of Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Rams.

The 45-year-old came into the game 164 yards shy of becoming the league's first six-digit passer.

To put that in perspective, Brady is nearly 15,000 yards clear of second place on the all-time list (Drew Brees, 85,724). Brees and Brady are the only two players in league history to top 80,000 total passing yards.

To put it in even further perspective: Brady is about Doug Flutie's career yardage total ahead of any other player and about a Jim McMahon clear of third place on the list (Peyton Manning).

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick praised his former quarterback on the milestone on Monday morning. "Tremendous accomplishment by Tom ... nobody deserves it more than he does," Belichick said on The Greg Hill Show on Audacy's WEEI 93.7 (48-minute mark).

While the 2022 season has been a disappointment from a performance standpoint, it's important to highlight Brady's all-time brilliance. There are fewer passing records he doesn't hold now than ones he does: most Super Bowls, most passing yards, most passing touchdowns, most completions.

Interceptions? He's not even in the top 20.

Even in the modern, pass-happy, 17-game era, it's hard to envision anyone toppling Brady's record. Patrick Mahomes will need to play about 330 career NFL games to reach 100,000 total passing yards if he continues his at his current rate. He's played in 81 so far in his entire career.

Brady's combination of longevity and all-time greatness is truly remarkable.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady backed linebacker Devin White after the Pro Bowler was criticized for his lack of effort in last week's loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

White was responding to a tweet from Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times after the Bucs' star defender previously addressed the criticism in his Wednesday meeting with reporters.

"I was on the far side of the field, on our sidelines, (in) coverage. The play happened on their sidelines, and I took off running. Obviously, I wasn't running the fastest over there. My teammates know what's going on," White said.

The tape showed White jogging toward Demarcus Robinson as the Ravens wide receiver converted a 3rd-and-9 to extend a drive in Bucs territory with the game tied 10-10 in the third quarter. The Ravens would score a touchdown two plays later.

Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said White was a combination of gassed and loafing on the play, indicating he was called out in a film session.

"We single out loafs all the time, if they're loafing," Bowles told reporters last week. "Some guys are gassed, some guys are loafing, but we single everything out."

Former Buccaneers star Warren Sapp ripped White for the lackadaisical play, saying he would strip White of his captaincy. It does not appear Bowles has any plans on taking such drastic measures.

White remains the best defender on the Tampa defense, and he finished the Baltimore game with 10 total tackles. That said, with the Bucs sitting at 3-5 on the season, it's understandable that there's been more concern about the one play White didn't make than the ones he did.

Tom Brady was going through a lot last week.

Alongside his much-publicized divorce to his former wife of 13 years, Gisele Bündchen, his Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered a 27-22 loss against the Baltimore Ravens. It was the team's third straight defeat, dropping it to a surprising 3-5 on the season.

So it was only natural during a press conference on Thursday that the topic of managing both his personal life and professional life came up.

"I've always tried to do the best I could do here [at the Bucs' facility] and then when I leave here, I try to do the best I can do. That's what we all try to do," he told reporters regarding his work-life balance. "I'm sure everyone's sitting in this room, everyone's sitting at home is trying to wake up every day doing the best they could do for their families and their career. And I'm no different. So just do the best you can do every day. We certainly try to do."

Brady also called on the team's veteran leaders to step up and carry the team past its current troubles.

"Our great players need to go out and execute well," he told reporters. "The guys that are in their first year or two ... it's hard to put too much on those guys. That's the reality. They're getting used to playing. They haven't played a lot of football. So the guys who have played a lot of football, we have to do a better job. And that's part of what leadership's all about."

While the 45-year-old Brady is well off the pace that saw him throw for 5,316 yards and 43 touchdowns last year—shocking numbers for a player of his age—he's hardly been poor in 2022, throwing for 2,267 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception while completing 65.9 percent of his passes.

Still, questions will linger as to whether he kept his NFL career going one season too long if the Bucs don't turn around their season. It's not as though the seven-time champion and future first-ballot Hall of Famer has anything left to prove.

Tom Brady doesn't play for Bill Belichick any longer, but he still had quite the praise for his former head coach.

"He's going to go down as the greatest coach of all time," Brady said on his Let's Go! podcast (h/t Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times) when discussing the New England Patriots head coach surpassing George Halas for second on the NFL's all-time list for head coaching wins.

Counting the playoffs, Belichick has now won 325 games. He surpassed the Chicago Bears founder with Sunday's 22-17 victory over the New York Jets and sits behind only Don Shula's mark of 347.

While Brady is now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Belichick is still leading the Patriots, they will forever be linked to each other as two of the most important figures in NFL history.

After all, they won six Super Bowls together during the quarterback's 20 years in New England. Brady then signed with Tampa Bay and won a seventh, which is more than any individual franchise in the league.

It is arguably the most successful partnership in all of American sports, which is all the more incredible considering the Michigan product was a sixth-round draft pick. Belichick helped him go from something of an afterthought on draft day to the greatest of all time, and the pair has six Lombardi Trophies as a result.

Yet there was reportedly some tension between the two legends even before Brady left the Patriots after the 2019 season.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that was the case "especially after the 2017 season when Brady began to express himself a little bit doing previously unthinkable acts such as not attending voluntary OTAs."

The two sides eventually went their separate ways, leaving a list of accomplishments in New England that may never be surpassed in the sport's history.

While Brady and Belichick may not be the best of friends, the veteran's comments suggest there is no shortage of respect for the head coach.