After learning Tom Brady is leaving the Patriots, the only franchise he has known over his 20-year career, I started thinking about who the closest equivalent to Brady would be in Angels history. From an historical, top-of-the-sport perspective, the most obvious comparison is Mike Trout. But I want to look at it a little differently.
There’s Tom Brady, the all-time great quarterback; and there’s Tom Brady, the all-time great Patriot, a player, regardless of his Hall-of-Fame standing, who has represented the best of his franchise for twenty years, and will now play his final days in a strange-looking uniform (let’s hope this doesn’t turn out to be Mike Trout).