Tom Brady’s last game in Cleveland was a rare Browns win over the QB
Tom Brady announced his retirement on social media on Wednesday. Assuming the future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback sticks with this one, it’ll make his final visit to Cleveland last season a rarity.
That game ended with a Browns victory.
Brady, who originally retired on Feb. 1, 2022, only to come back and play last season, brought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Cleveland on Nov. 27. The Browns spoiled his last trip into town with a 23-17 overtime win.
“Earlier in the week, we were talking about how he’s been in the league for 23 years and I’m 22,” Browns rookie cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. said. “He’s been playing longer than me. I’ve been watching him ever since I was growing up. It feels great to beat him.”
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It was just the second time in nine games Brady — who averaged 272.4 passing yards in those nine games, while throwing 15 touchdowns and four interceptions — lost to the Browns. He also lost a 34-14 game on Nov. 7, 2010, while with the New England Patriots.
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Brady was 2-2 all-time in Cleveland, including 2-1 with the Patriots. He also famously returned from his four-game suspension for “Deflategate” against the Browns in Cleveland on Oct. 9, 2016, throwing for 406 yards and three touchdowns in a 33-13 New England win.
Brady was 29-of-43 for 246 yards and two touchdowns in his game in Cleveland last season. However, he was sacked twice on key third downs in the fourth quarter and overtime, once by Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney combined, and once by Garrett himself.
“I’ve always looked up to him,” Garrett, who had 2.5 career sacks of Brady, said after the win. “I respect him as a competitor, as a ballplayer, and I appreciate everything that you’ve given to the game and the sacrifices that you’ve made to really pave the way for a lot of these guys, to inspire pretty much a whole generation. It’s really unbelievable how long he’s done it and at the level at which he’s done it and just nothing but respect for him.”
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Brady ended up losing to his former backup, Jacoby Brissett. Brissett, who was in his final game starting for the Browns, helped extend the game to overtime when he threw a 12-yard TD pass on fourth-and-10 to David Njoku, who made a one-handed catch with 32 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.
Njoku also came away from the game with Brady’s jersey. Not without some cajoling from the tight end, though.
“I told him on the field, ‘Listen dawg, you’re my idol but I’m not leaving this field until I get this jersey’ and he laughed it off,” Njoku recalled on Dec. 7. “He said ‘I promise you I’ll mail you one.’ So I was like, ‘All right I’m taking your word for it’ and he did so I was happy.”
Brissett was 23-of-37 for 210 yards with the one TD and one interception. He had spent his rookie season as the No. 3 quarterback with the Patriots behind Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo, although he did make two starts that season.
The win over the Buccaneers and Brady was Brissett’s final start for the Browns, with Deshaun Watson returning from his 11-game suspension the next week. That didn’t stop him from opening his final press conference as the Browns’ starting quarterback by quoting his former teammate.
“I mean this in no disrespect, but in the words of Tom Brady, that was [expletive] awesome,” Brissett said. “That was [expletive] awesome.”
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