New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady reached a career milestone of 400 touchdowns in Week 3 and while that puts him in elite company, he says it's not the record he's been after his whole career. On his weekly radio appearance with WEEI, Brady said that he'd prefer to topple Brett Favre's record for consecutive starts than anything else.
Tom Brady wants a record he will never have
Tom Brady is happy he reached 400 career touchdowns, but the record he coveted was Brett Favre’s record for consecutive starts.
“I think the thing that probably means the most would be just consecutive starts,” Brady said on WEEI. “Because I think that’s something that is a reflection of the commitment that you make. I think that’s a pretty amazing thing.”
Brady said that he wanted to be able to do what Favre did, and also mentioned Peyton Manning, but for the good of the team, not individual achievement.
“Just being available to your team,” Brady said. “I mean, you’re no help to your team if you’re on the sideline. To be available to play and to be durable, consistent, that’s what I focus on.”
Brady became the fourth quarterback in NFL history to reach the 400 passing touchdown milestone when he hit Danny Amendola for a 1-yard touchdown in Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He joins Peyton Manning, Dan Marino and Favre as the only players to have achieved the feat.
Still, Brady was more than happy to lay praise on the team around him rather than take credit for the effort.
“The great part about football is it’s a team sport,” Brady said, “You can enjoy it with everybody. In order to have an individual accomplishment you need your entire team to do everything that they’re asked, too.”
With Brady under center, the Patriots have won four Super Bowls, Brady has been named the Super Bowl MVP three times and he’s been named to 10 Pro Bowls over the course of his career. It’s been a team effort over the years, like Brady says, but he’s obviously the catalyst for New England’s success over that time.
As for Favre’s streak of consecutive starts, Brady has no chance of taking the record. Favre has the record with 297 consecutive regular season starts, and while Brady had 128 starts prior to 2008, he suffered a serious ACL injury and his streak was reset.
Brady is currently at 98 starts in the regular season, 110 if the playoffs are taken into consideration. He’d have to play for a long while to catch Favre.
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