title: Boris Johnson

text: After Paterson resigned, a by-election was held in Paterson's former constituency of North Shropshire. The Liberal Democrat candidate, Helen Morgan, overturned a Conservative majority of nearly 23,000 to win the seat. The 34% swing was seventh largest in United Kingdom by-election history.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In early December 2021, reports emerged that social gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff in Downing Street had taken place ahead of Christmas 2020 against COVID-19 regulations. Johnson and a spokesperson denied these allegations. Following a leaked video showing Downing Street staff joking about a "fictional party", at a press conference rehearsal recorded days after one alleged party took place, Johnson apologised for the contents of the video and suggested he had been misled but had now ordered an inquiry into whether a party took place and whether rules were broken.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 10 January 2022, ITV News reported that a planned party had taken place on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown. ITV had obtained an email sent by principal private secretary Martin Reynolds to staff inviting them to "socially distanced drinks" in the garden of No. 10 and asking them to "bring your own booze". At the time, people outdoors were not allowed to meet more than one person from outside their household.<ref name="sky12/1/2022"></ref> Two eyewitnesses later alleged that Johnson and Symonds attended, contradicting Johnson's insistence in December 2021 that there were "no parties". At first, Johnson did not deny that he attended.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 12 January 2022, Johnson apologised to MPs in the Commons for "attending an event in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown", stating he believed it was "a work event". He said that MPs should await the outcome of the independent inquiry into Westminster lockdown parties, led by senior civil servant Sue Gray, which he said "will report as soon as possible". There were immediate calls across the House for Johnson to resign, voiced mainly by the leaders of the opposition parties. Later, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross and several other Conservative MPs expressed their agreement.<ref name="bbc12/1/2022"></ref>


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 19 January, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford defected from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party. At the end of Prime Minister's Questions, Conservative former minister David Davis called for Johnson to resign, quoting Leo Amery calling on Neville Chamberlain to resign during the Norway Debate in 1940, and saying: "You have sat there too long for all the good you have done. In the name of God, go." Amery's call was itself a reference to Cromwell's dismissal of the Rump parliament.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 25 January, the Metropolitan Police's chief commander, Cressida Dick, announced that they were commencing investigations into the Downing Street Parties. Dick stated that "potential breaches of COVID-19 regulations" at Downing Street and Whitehall over the last two years would be looked into.


title: Boris Johnson

text: An abbreviated version of the Sue Gray report into the controversy was released on 31 January, where Gray concluded there was a "failure of leadership" over the events that she had examined. The release of the full report was delayed pending the Metropolitan Police's investigation.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In early February 2022, four of Johnson's senior aides resigned: Dan Rosenfield (chief of staff), Martin Reynolds (principal private secretary), Munira Mirza (head of policy) and Jack Doyle (director of communications).


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 12 April 2022, Downing Street confirmed that Johnson would be issued a fixed penalty notice for £50 as police believed he had broken the law by breaching COVID-19 regulations when attending parties during COVID-19 restrictions. At least 50 such notices would be issued, with other recipients including Johnson's wife and Chancellor Sunak. Johnson therefore became the first Prime Minister in British history to have been sanctioned for breaking the law while in office. Boris Johnson either knowingly broke the law or did not understand laws he himself had introduced.


title: Boris Johnson

text: According to Downing Street insiders, Johnson was involved in instigating a party on the occasion of Lee Cain leaving Number 10. What had begun as press office drinks became a party after Johnson arrived, gave a speech and poured drinks for staff. Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner said, "If the latest reports are true, it would mean that not only did the prime minister attend parties, but he had a hand in instigating at least one of them. He has deliberately misled the British people at every turn. The prime minister has demeaned his office."


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 19 April 2022, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle decided that MPs would vote, on 21 April, on whether Johnson should be referred to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee to investigate whether he knowingly misled Parliament. This was waved through unopposed on 21 April.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Steve Baker said Johnson's, "marvellous contrition... only lasted as long as it took to get out of the headmaster's study". Baker added, "I have to acknowledge that if the prime minister occupied any other office of senior responsibility... he would be long gone."


title: Boris Johnson

text: In April 2022, a poll by "The Independent" found 27% of voters who voted Conservative in the 2019 general election claim they are less likely vote that way again if Johnson stays leader. Labour were at 40% with the Conservatives at 34%. Johnson rated 28 (33% claim he does a good job and 61% bad) worse than 19 the previous month. About 65%, including 46% of Conservative voters maintained Johnson should resign if he gets more fixed penalty notices or gets severe criticism in Sue Gray's report and 63% maintained his apologies were not good enough. Only 28% believed he did not know he was breaking the law during a Downing Street birthday party, while 63%, including 52% of Conservative voters, maintained he was lying.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Leaflets for the May 2022 referred to candidates as Local Conservatives and avoided pictures of Johnson.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Following the May 2022 local elections in the UK, many leading Conservatives in areas where the Conservatives had done badly were blaming Johnson and calling on Johnson to resign.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 1 June, Lord Geidt said he wanted Johnson to explain why he thought his fixed penalty notice did not show he had broken the ministerial code.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 6 June, Graham Brady announced that the threshold for a vote on Johnson's leadership had been passed; the vote was scheduled for later that same day.


title: Boris Johnson

text: While speaking in the House of Commons on 31 January 2022, Johnson falsely blamed Starmer for the non-prosecution of serial sex offender Jimmy Savile when Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Starmer was DPP in the years immediately prior to Savile's death but there is no evidence he was involved in the decision to not have him prosecuted. The claim linking the failure of the CPS to prosecute Savile to Starmer originated in 2018 on the right-wing Guido Fawkes blog, and was amplified in April 2020 by the far-right fake news website Politicalite. Johnson received criticism for the comment and his policy adviser, Munira Mirza, resigned three days later, saying in her resignation letter that Johnson had made "a scurrilous accusation" against Starmer. On 3 February, during an interview with "Sky News", Johnson defended his comments, stating that in 2013, Starmer apologised because the CPS had not investigated Savile; however, Johnson then said: "I totally understand that he [Starmer] had nothing to do personally with those decisions".


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 7 February, while Starmer and his colleague David Lammy were leaving Parliament, they were ambushed by a group of people who shouted abuse at Starmer including the words "traitor" and "Jimmy Savile". Two people, a man and a woman, were arrested after a traffic cone was thrown at police officers. Johnson tweeted that it was "absolutely disgraceful" and thanked the police for acting swiftly. Shayan Sardarizadeh for BBC Monitoring said that the protest was an attempt to recreate the Canadian convoy protests in the UK, and noted that the activists' references to Magna Carta indicated that the protesters were members of the sovereign citizen movement. The Savile claims have also been linked to British offshoots of the QAnon conspiracy movement. Julian Smith, the former chief whip, and Simon Hoare were among Conservatives who called for Johnson to apologise. MP Kim Leadbeater and Brendan Cox, the sister and husband of murdered MP Jo Cox, warned against politicians lending credence to far-right conspiracy theories. Death threats sent to Starmer following this episode were later investigated by the police.


title: Boris Johnson

text: During the 2019 United Kingdom general election campaign and many times afterwards, Johnson pledged to build 40 new hospitals by 2030. Most of the claimed "new" hospitals are not entire new hospitals however, but instead new wings or refurbishments of existing hospitals and only six will be completed by 2025. In July 2022 the National Audit Office announced an investigation into the affordability of the pledge and raised concerns about the claim that the hospitals will be "new".


title: Boris Johnson

text: In the week prior to and throughout the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II in June 2022, it had been speculated that a vote of confidence in Johnson's leadership of the Conservative Party might occur in the near future. On 6 June 2022, the Conservative Party announced that Johnson would face a vote of confidence in his leadership of the party, after at least 54 Conservative MPs wrote no-confidence letters to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, meeting the threshold required to arrange such a vote. Johnson won the vote, with 211 in favour and 148 against (59% in favour, 41% against). The number of rebel MPs was larger than had been expected. The vote showed more widespread lack of confidence in Johnson than similar votes during the leadership of Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. The result was described by Keir Starmer as the "beginning of the end" for Johnson's premiership.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Following heavy Conservative defeats in the 23 June by-elections in Wakefield by the Labour Party and in Tiverton and Honiton, by the Liberal Democrats, former party leader Michael Howard called for Johnson to resign, saying: "[Mr Johnson's] biggest asset has always been his ability to win votes but I'm afraid yesterday's results make it clear that he no longer has that ability."


title: Boris Johnson

text: Oliver Dowden, the Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, resigned saying: "We cannot carry on with business as usual" and "Somebody must take responsibility". Johnson announced that had no intention of changing or resigning; senior Conservatives accused him of increasingly "delusional" behaviour. On 26 June 2022 Johnson said: "At the moment I'm thinking actively about the third term and what could happen then, but I will review that when I get to it." He also claimed that he intended to stay as prime minister until the mid-2030s, although Number 10 later said that he had been joking.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Government Deputy Chief Whip Chris Pincher resigned on 30 June 2022, saying he had "drunk far too much" the night before at the Carlton Club, a private members' club, in St James's, London, and having "embarrassed myself and other people". It was later alleged that he sexually assaulted two men,<ref name="sky2/7/2022"></ref> and he was suspended as a Conservative MP. On 3 July 2022 six new allegations against Pincher emerged, involving behaviour over a decade.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson allegedly referred to Pincher as "handsy" and Cummings said Johnson joked about him being "Pincher by name, pincher by nature" in 2020, leading to calls for Johnson to explain how much he knew about Pincher's behaviour. Ministers initially said that Johnson was unaware of any specific complaints against Pincher when he was appointed as deputy chief whip. The BBC then reported, however, that an official complaint and subsequent investigation into Pincher, while he was at the Foreign Office (July 2019 to February 2020), had confirmed his misconduct, and that Johnson had been made aware of the matter at that time. Sir Simon McDonald, former Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, later said that the prime minister had been briefed "in person" about Pincher.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 5 July, Sunak and Javid resigned within minutes of each other, followed over the next 24 hours by 11 other ministers, as well as Conservative MPs from Parliamentary Private Secretary and other Government positions, including the Solicitor General, Alex Chalk; other backbenchers also withdrew their support for Johnson. Many of the MPs involved stated that the Pincher affair had led them to change their minds on the suitability of Johnson to hold the office of Prime Minister. It was further reported on 6 July that Johnson could face another confidence vote, with members of the 1922 Committee considering changing the rules as soon as that evening to allow this to happen. By 4 p.m. on 6 July, there had been a total of 31 resignations. As of May 2022, the government comprised 122 ministers.


title: Boris Johnson

text: By the morning of 7 July, the newly installed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, publicly stated his belief that Johnson should resign. Within hours, the BBC and other news outlets reported Boris Johnson's intention to resign as Prime Minister, pending a party leadership election by autumn 2022. Johnson announced his resignation at 12.30 p.m. Upon reports of his resignation, the pound sterling temporarily strengthened in value, and UK stocks rose. He remained as Prime Minister until September, while the Conservative Party chose a new leader. During his final Prime Minister's Questions Johnson signed off by saying "hasta la vista, baby".


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 5 September 2022, it was announced that Liz Truss had won the Conservative leadership election. She became prime minister the next day, after formally being appointed by Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle. During his farewell speech outside 10 Downing Street on 6 September 2022 Johnson referred to the Roman statesman Cincinnatus. Some commentators noted that, while, as Johnson said, Cincinnatus returned to his plough, he was also later recalled to power. As a former Prime Minister, Johnson, with his wife Carrie, had a place of honour at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In early April 2022, Johnson decided to ban conversion therapy for sexual orientation but not for transgender Britons, despite previous commitment to end such treatment for all LGBT people. He defended his decision citing "complexities and sensitivities", adding that he thought biological males should not compete in women's sport and women should have their own changing rooms. In the government's 2017 LGBT survey, five percent of the respondents said they had been offered a form of conversion therapy, with two percent saying they had undergone it. As a result of the transgender exclusion, over 100 organisations pulled out of a planned global equality conference, Safe To Be Me, which had to be abandoned as a result.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In November 2020, Johnson announced a 10-point plan for a "green industrial revolution", which would include an end to the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, quadruple the amount of offshore wind power capacity within a decade, fund a variety of emissions-cutting proposals, and spurn a proposed green post-COVID-19 recovery. In 2021, the UK government under Johnson's leadership announced plans to cut carbon emissions by 78% by 2035.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson announced that the UK would join the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by the year of 2030 at the COP26 summit, which the UK hosted. Before the summit, representatives of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth criticised Johnson's comments on plans to introduce "enforceable limits" on carbon emissions for other countries, which they accused of being unsubstantive and his government faced criticism from environmental groups for cutting taxes on domestic air travel, given the environmental impact of aviation. He was accused of hypocrisy, by Anneliese Dodds of the Labour Party and others, for flying on a chartered private jet during COP26 to attend a reunion of "Telegraph" journalists at the Garrick Club.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In April 2022, Johnson announced that eight more nuclear reactors would be built on existing nuclear power plant sites, and called for an expansion in wind energy. Under these plans, up to 95% of the UK's electricity could come from low-carbon power sources by 2030.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson supported the European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement, which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas. Johnson's government placed importance on maintaining the "Special Relationship" with the United States. In 2022, his government introduced an asylum deal with Rwanda, whereby people entering the UK illegally would be sent to Rwanda.


title: Boris Johnson

text: The United Kingdom and Mauritius dispute the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. In February 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion stating that the UK has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos archipelago as rapidly as possible. In June 2020, 30 British MPs – including Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats – signed a letter calling on Prime Minister Johnson to act immediately on the ICJ ruling. However, the Foreign Office rejected the advisory opinion. Johnson disputed Mauritian claims to sovereignty over the Chagos.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson said in July 2019 that his government would be very "pro-China" in an interview with the Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV. He voiced support for Chinese President Xi Jinping's infrastructure investment effort, the Belt and Road Initiative, and promised to keep the United Kingdom "the most open economy in Europe" for Chinese investment.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 3 June 2020, Johnson announced that if China were to continue pursuing the Hong Kong national security law, the UK would offer 350,000 Hong Kong residents who are British National (Overseas) passport holders, and 2.6 million other eligible individuals, the chance to move to the UK, with the possibility of later applying for citizenship. China accused the UK of interfering in its internal affairs.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson refused to describe the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur people as "genocide", despite use of the term by the United States. Johnson’s government argued that genocide should be decided by the International Criminal Court. Nevertheless, he called what is happening to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as "utterly abhorrent".


title: Boris Johnson

text: The UK joined the AUKUS defence pact with the United States and Australia in September 2021, which was interpreted as aiming to counter Chinese power in the Indo-Pacific region. The pact was denounced by China and caused a French backlash, as it usurped existing plans for Australia to procure French submarines. Johnson was dismissive of this, saying the pact was not intended to be adversarial towards China, and said that French officials should ""prenez un" grip about this and "donnez-moi un" break".


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 8 July 2021, the day after saying he was "apprehensive" about the future of Afghanistan following what was then the impending withdrawal of US troops, whilst announcing the near completion of British troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Johnson expressed the view that there was "no military path to victory for the Taliban". A few weeks later, following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, he blamed the United States for the crisis caused by the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying that NATO alliance members "could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without US air power and without American might".


title: Boris Johnson

text: Following the formal withdrawal from the European Union in January 2020, Johnson's government entered trade negotiations with the EU to agree on their future relationship before the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020. Fisheries was a major topic of the negotiations. On 16 October 2020 Johnson said that the UK "must get ready" for no trade deal with the EU. With negotiations continuing until days before the deadline, it was announced on 24 December 2020 that a trade deal had been agreed. Entitled the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, it came into force provisionally on 1 January 2021, and formally on 1 May. A fisheries dispute between the UK and France occurred shortly afterwards. Introduction of new UK border checks were delayed until 2022 to minimise the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In May 2022, Johnson readied a draft that would unilaterally change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, citing issues with medical supplies and cuts in VAT. One of the thornier points of contention involves safety regulations for food and plants, an area where the British government is opposed to a closer alignment with existing EU regulations. For its part, the EU has so far rebuffed the idea of changing the text of the treaty to accommodate the British. A unilateral override by the UK would be tantamount to a breach of the agreement. As Johnson sought a more conciliatory tone, sources within the government began to stress that the draft is designed to be an "insurance policy" and in any case would take years to become law.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In November 2021, Johnson warned that the European Union faces "a choice" between "sticking up for Ukraine" and approving the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline which runs from Russia to Europe.


title: Boris Johnson

text: During the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, Johnson's government warned the Russian Government not to invade Donbas. Despite this, Johnson's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told BBC News that British troops were "unlikely" to be deployed. In a phone call to President Vladimir Putin, Johnson urged him to "avoid bloodshed". Johnson and Putin agreed in a phone call to work towards a "peaceful resolution". On 1 February 2022, Johnson arrived in Kyiv on a diplomatic visit. He called the presence of the Russian Armed Forces near the Russia–Ukraine border "the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades". The Kremlin denied that it wanted to attack Ukraine. On 14 February 2022, Johnson warned an invasion of Ukraine could take place within 48 hours. On 20 February 2022, Johnson warned that Russia is planning the "biggest war in Europe since 1945" as Putin intends to invade and encircle the capital of Kyiv. On 21 February 2022, Johnson condemned Russia's diplomatic recognition of two self-proclaimed separatist republics in Donbas.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and ensured the UK joined in international sanctions on Russian banks and oligarchs. He later announced the UK would phase out Russian oil by the end of 2022.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 9 April 2022, Johnson travelled to Kyiv and met the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On 16 April 2022, Russia's Ministry for Foreign Affairs banned Johnson and a number of senior British politicians, including cabinet members, from visiting Russia, saying that Britain aimed to isolate Russia politically and supply "the Kyiv regime with lethal weapons and coordinating similar efforts on the part of NATO".


title: Boris Johnson

text: Within Ukraine, Johnson is praised by many as a supporter of anti-Russian sanctions and military aid for Ukraine. The defence secretary Ben Wallace said on 25 April that the UK had provided £200m in military aid to Ukraine. On 3 May, Johnson virtually addressed the Ukrainian parliament, becoming the first world leader to speak in Ukraine since the invasion. In his speech, he pledged an extra £300m in military aid to Ukraine, praised Ukraine's resistance to Russia as its "finest hour" and said that the West had been "too slow to grasp what was actually happening" prior to Russia's invasion. In August 2022, Johnson blamed Vladimir Putin for the emerging global energy crisis, saying that Putin wanted the UK to "buckle" in the face of "eye-watering" energy price rises.


title: Boris Johnson

text: After stepping down as party leader, Johnson reverted to being an ordinary backbench MP. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Johnson took part in Charles III's Accession Council, and many other funeral-related events.


title: Boris Johnson

text: After Liz Truss announced her resignation as Conservative Party leader on 20 October 2022, Johnson sought support from MPs to run in the subsequent leadership election, and received support from several cabinet members. Three days later, he announced that he would not stand, stating that he would not have enough support from MPs to govern effectively.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Ideologically, Johnson has been described by himself and others as a "One-Nation Tory". Political scientists have described Johnson's political positions as ambiguous and contradictory, encompassing nativist, authoritarian and free market tendencies on the one hand, and one-nation liberal conservatism on the other. Some scholars have questioned Johnson's commitment to one-nation conservativism, instead characterising his ideology as being flexible and populist. Purnell stated that Johnson regularly changed his opinion on political issues, commenting on what she perceived to be "an ideological emptiness beneath the staunch Tory exterior". She later referred to his "opportunistic – some might say pragmatic – approach to politics".


title: Boris Johnson

text: During his tenure as London Mayor, Johnson gained a reputation as "a liberal, centre-ground politician", according to "Business Insider". In 2012, the political scientist Tony Travers described Johnson as "a fairly classic—that is, small-state—mildly eurosceptic Conservative" who, like his contemporaries Cameron and George Osborne, also embraced "modern social liberalism". "The Guardian" stated that while mayor, Johnson blended economic and social liberalism, with "The Economist" saying that in doing so Johnson "transcends his Tory identity" and adopts a more libertarian perspective.


title: Boris Johnson

text: According to political scientist Richard Hayton, Johnson's premiership centred around Brexit, which served as a "national cause". Johnson evoked the discourse of popular sovereignty and anti-establishment populism to portray Parliament as seeking to "sabotage" Brexit, and in doing so, presented himself "as the true representative of 'the people'". In 2019, Al Jazeera editor James Brownswell said that although Johnson had "leaned to the right" since the Brexit campaign, he remained "slightly more socially liberal" than much of his party.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Scholars of comparative politics have drawn comparisons between Johnson and other populist leaders such as Donald Trump and Viktor Orban. Some commentators have likened aspects of Johnson's political style to Trumpism, although others have argued against this, saying that Johnson's stance on matters such as social policy, immigration and free trade is liberal.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson biographer Gimson wrote that Johnson is economically and socially "a genuine liberal", although he retains a "Tory element" to his personality through his "love of existing institutions, and a recognition of the inevitability of hierarchy". Stuart Reid, Johnson's colleague at "The Spectator", described the latter's views as being those of a "liberal libertarian". In 2019, reacting to reports in "The Sun", that Johnson had told cabinet colleagues he was "basically a Brexity Hezza", former deputy leader of the Conservative Party Michael Heseltine said Johnson "has no right to call himself a one-nation Conservative" and wrote: "I fear that any traces of liberal conservatism that still exist within the prime minister have long since been captured by the rightwing, foreigner-bashing, inward-looking view of the world that has come to characterise his fellow Brexiters."


title: Boris Johnson

text: According to TheyWorkForYou, Johnson has "generally voted against" what it described as "measures to prevent climate change" while an MP. While Mayor of London, Johnson expressed climate skeptical views in several columns. In two "Daily Telegraph" columns published in 2012 and 2013, he conflated the distinction between weather and climate and highlighted a factually incorrect claim by weather forecaster and conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn that reduced solar activity could lead to a "mini-Ice Age". Bloomberg News suggested that Johnson's interest in climate change increased after becoming Prime Minister, and suggested this could have been influenced by his wife Carrie Symonds and father Stanley Johnson, who are both environmental campaigners. It was reported in 2022 that Johnson was convinced of the scientific consensus on climate change following a briefing by the chief scientist of the Met Office in January 2020, and subsequently made the issue a priority for his government.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In 2019 and 2020, Johnson expressed support for the UK to have "net-zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and spoke about increasing ambition for mitigating climate change through carbon capture and storage and a renewable energy transition. During the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Johnson called for greater efforts towards climate change mitigation, and welcomed the prospect of coal phase-out.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Purnell believed it was the influence of Johnson's maternal family, the left-wing Fawcetts, that led to him developing "a genuine abhorrence of racial discrimination". In 2003, Johnson said of the EU, "I am not by any means an ultra-Eurosceptic. In some ways, I am a bit of a fan of the European Union. If we did not have one, we would invent something like it." As Mayor of London, Johnson was known as a supporter of immigration. From 2009, he advocated a referendum on Britain's EU membership.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In 2018, during the Brexit negotiations, he called for Britain to leave the Single Market and advocated a more liberal approach to immigration than that of Prime Minister Theresa May. He stated many people believed that Britain's EU membership had led to the suppression of the wages of its "indigenous" people and said the EU was intent on creating a "superstate" that would seek to rob Britain of its sovereignty. In 2019, Johnson said he would take Britain out of the EU on 31 October whether there was a trade deal in place or not. Johnson also stated his opposition to a referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 19 August 2019, Johnson wrote a letter to the EU and asked for the removal of the "backstop" accord, which had previously been agreed and signed by Theresa May during her premiership. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, rejected the proposal. On 26 August 2019, Johnson said that Britain would not pay £39 billion for the withdrawal agreement were the UK to leave without a deal on 31 October. The European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said there would be no further negotiation on the trade deal unless the UK agreed to pay the entire sum.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Speaking in Northern Ireland, Johnson described himself as a "fervent and passionate unionist". He proposed building a bridge or tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland, but has since scrapped this initiative.


title: Boris Johnson

text: The devolved administrations have criticised the Internal Market Bill for its re-centralisation of control over commerce, reversing the devolution of power in the United Kingdom.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson has been described by various biographers and commentators as having a light hearted and charming persona, many of whom suggest he has put significant thought and effort into developing this version of himself throughout his adult life. He has been noted as making significant use of humour in relation to this, sometimes for explicitly political purposes. Johnson has said that "humour is a utensil that you can use to sugar the pill and to get important points across". He is said to have a genuine desire to be liked. He has also been described, including by some of those that have known him personally, as heavily focused on his own interests, with an often vitriolic or irresponsible way of conducting himself in private.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson has been described as a divisive and controversial figure in British politics. Supporters have praised him as humorous, witty, and entertaining. Johnson has been accused of lying or making untruthful or misleading statements throughout his career, and has been described as racist and otherwise bigoted; comparisons have been drawn with US president Donald Trump. He has been considered a figure with broad appeal outside of the usual Conservative support base. Johnson's premiership has been described by historians as the most controversial and scandal-affected since that of David Lloyd George about a century earlier.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Since Johnson was born in New York City to British parents, he first held British-American dual citizenship. In 2014, he acknowledged he was disputing a demand for capital gains tax from the US tax authorities on a property that he inherited in the United Kingdom, which ultimately he paid. In February 2015, he announced his intention to renounce his US citizenship to demonstrate his loyalty to the UK, which he did in 2016. Johnson has a knowledge of French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin, and Ancient Greek, frequently employing and alluding to classical references in both his newspaper columns and his speeches. His favourite film is "The Godfather", owing to "the multiple retribution killings at the end".


title: Boris Johnson

text: Sonia Purnell wrote that Johnson was a "highly evasive figure" when it came to his personal life, who remained detached from others and who had very few if any intimate friends. Among friends and family, Johnson is more commonly known as Al (short for his forename Alexander), rather than his middle name Boris.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In 2007, Johnson said he had smoked cannabis before he went to university. He has also said he had used cocaine. Johnson partakes in cycling, tennis and pilates, and was formerly an avid runner before having to give it up owing to knee problems. Johnson's weight has fluctuated throughout his career; he was considered obese in 2018 and overweight in 2020, and has spoken of making efforts to lose weight.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson owns a £1.3 million buy-to-let townhouse in Camberwell, South London. According to HM Land Registry documents, he bought the four-bedroom property with his then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds in July 2019. The register of MPs' interests states that Johnson has a rental income of at least £10,000 a year.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson was baptised a Catholic and later confirmed into the Church of England, but has said that his faith "comes and goes" and that he is not a serious practising Christian. In 2020, his son Wilfred was baptised Catholic, prompting suggestions that Johnson had returned to Catholicism. Johnson and Symonds married in a Catholic ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on 29 May 2021. To be married in the Catholic Church, Johnson needed to have his two previous marriages proven to be invalid by reason of lack of canonical form. Since he was baptised Catholic, but his previous weddings were not conferred by the Catholic Church, they are considered putatively invalid.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson holds ancient Greek statesman and orator Pericles as a personal hero. According to Johnson's biographer, Andrew Gimson, regarding ancient Greek and Roman polytheism: "it is clear that [Johnson] is inspired by the Romans, and even more by the Greeks, and repelled by the early Christians". Johnson views secular humanism positively and sees it as owing more to the classical world than to Christian thinking. However, in 2021, Johnson was asked if he held pre-Christian beliefs, which he denied, saying, "Christianity is a superb ethical system and I would count myself as a kind of very, very bad Christian[.] No disrespect to any other religions, but Christianity makes a lot of sense to me."


title: Boris Johnson

text: In 1987, Johnson married Allegra Mostyn-Owen, daughter of the art historian William Mostyn-Owen and Italian writer Gaia Servadio. The couple's marriage ended in divorce or annulment in 1993 and 12 days later Johnson married Marina Wheeler, a barrister, daughter of journalist and broadcaster Charles Wheeler. Five weeks later, Wheeler and Johnson's first child was born. The Wheeler and Johnson families have known each other for decades, and Marina Wheeler was at the European School, Brussels, at the same time as her future husband. They have four children: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches, and Theodore Apollo.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Between 2000 and 2004, Johnson had an affair with "Spectator" columnist Petronella Wyatt when he was its editor, resulting in a terminated pregnancy and a miscarriage. In April 2006, the "News of the World" alleged that Johnson was having an affair with "Guardian" journalist Anna Fazackerley. The pair did not comment; shortly afterward, Johnson employed Fazackerley.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In 2009, Johnson fathered a daughter with Helen Macintyre, an arts consultant. In 2013, the Court of Appeal discharged an injunction banning reporting of his daughter's existence. The judge ruled the public had a right to know about Johnson's "reckless" behaviour. There had been speculation that he might have had another child from an extramarital affair, due to an appeal court judge stating in 2013, "the father's infidelities resulted in the conception of children on two occasions". In September 2021, after years of obfuscation, Johnson stated that he had six children, thereby denying the existence of any further illegitimate children.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In September 2018, Johnson and Wheeler issued a statement confirming that after 25 years of marriage they had separated "several months ago", and had begun divorce proceedings. They reached a financial settlement in February 2020, and the divorce was finalised by November 2020.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In October 2020, Jennifer Arcuri, asked whether her 'friendship' with Johnson was in fact an affair, said "I think that goes without saying ... But I'm not going to talk about it." In March 2021, she went into more detail about the alleged affair in an interview with the "Sunday Mirror", saying it lasted from 2012 to 2016.


title: Boris Johnson

text: In 2019, Johnson was living with Carrie Symonds, the daughter of Matthew Symonds, co-founder of "The Independent" newspaper. Symonds had worked for the Conservative party since 2009 and worked on Johnson's 2012 campaign to be re-elected as mayor. On 29 February 2020, Johnson and Symonds announced they had become engaged in late 2019, and that Symonds was expecting a baby in early summer. Their son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, was born on 29 April 2020 at University College Hospital in London.


title: Boris Johnson

text: On 29 May 2021, Johnson married Symonds in a secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral attended by 30 guests, becoming the first prime minister to marry in office since Lord Liverpool married Mary Chester in 1822. On 31 July 2021, it was announced that they were expecting their second child together after Carrie suffered a miscarriage earlier that year. Their daughter, Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson, was born on 9 December 2021 at an NHS London hospital.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson is the eldest of the four children of Stanley Johnson, a former Conservative member of the European Parliament and an employee of the European Commission and the World Bank, and the painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett), the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights. His younger siblings are Rachel Johnson, a writer and journalist; Leo Johnson, a partner specialising in sustainability at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Jo Johnson, ex-minister of state and former Conservative MP for Orpington, who resigned from his brother's government in September 2019 and is now a member of the House of Lords. Johnson's stepmother, Jenny, the second wife of his father Stanley, is the stepdaughter of Teddy Sieff, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer. Having been a member of the Conservatives between 2008 and 2011, Rachel Johnson joined the Liberal Democrats in 2017. She stood as a candidate for Change UK in the 2019 European Elections. Johnson also has two half-siblings, Julia and Maximilian, through his father's later marriage to Jennifer Kidd.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson's paternal grandfather, Wilfred Johnson, was an RAF pilot in Coastal Command during the Second World War. Wilfred Johnson's father was the Ottoman Interior Minister and journalist Ali Kemal, who was a secular Muslim. Ali Kemal's father was a Turk with roots in Kalfat, a village in central Turkey, while his mother was a Circassian reputedly of slave origin. His other paternal ancestry includes English, German and French; one of his German ancestors was said to be the illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and thus a descendant of George II of Great Britain, which was later confirmed on an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?"


title: Boris Johnson

text: Johnson's mother is the granddaughter of Elias Avery Lowe, a palaeographer, who was a Russian Jewish immigrant to the US, and Pennsylvania-born Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, a translator of Thomas Mann. Through this family line, Johnson is a descendant in the seventh generation of Anna Catharina Bischoff, whose mummified corpse was found in 1975 and identified in 2018.


title: Boris Johnson

text: Referring to his varied ancestry, Johnson has described himself as a "one-man melting pot" with a combination of Abrahamic religious great-grandparents. Johnson was also given the middle name "Boris" after a White Russian émigré named Boris Litwin, who was a friend of his parents. An episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" explored the German origins of his middle name Pfeffel.


title: Tom Brady

text: Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots organization, with which he was a central contributor to the franchise's dynasty from 2001 to 2019. Brady is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time.


title: Tom Brady

text: After playing college football at Michigan, Brady was selected 199th overall by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, later earning him a reputation as the NFL's biggest draft steal. He became the starting quarterback during his second season, which saw the Patriots win their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVI. As the team's primary starter for 18 seasons, Brady led the Patriots to 17 division titles (including 11 consecutive from 2009 to 2019), 13 AFC Championship Games (including eight consecutive from 2011 to 2018), nine Super Bowl appearances, and six Super Bowl titles, all NFL records for a player and franchise. He joined the Buccaneers in 2020 and led them to win Super Bowl LV, extending his individual records to ten Super Bowl appearances and seven victories.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady holds nearly every major quarterback record, including passing yards, completions, touchdown passes, and games started. Never having a losing season, he is the NFL leader in career quarterback wins, quarterback regular season wins, quarterback playoff wins, and Super Bowl MVP awards, as well as being the only Super Bowl MVP for two different franchises. Additional accolades held by Brady include the most Pro Bowl selections and the first unanimous NFL MVP. The only quarterback to win a Super Bowl in three separate decades, Brady is also noted for the longevity of his success. He is the oldest NFL MVP at age 40, the oldest Super Bowl MVP at age 43, and the oldest quarterback selected to the Pro Bowl at age 44. Brady is the only NFL quarterback named to two all-decade teams (2000s and 2010s) and was unanimously named to the 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.


title: Tom Brady

text: Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born in San Mateo, California, on August 3, 1977, the only son and fourth child of Galynn Patricia ("née" Johnson) and Thomas Brady Sr. He was raised as a Catholic. His father is of Irish descent, while his mother has Swedish, Norwegian, German, and Polish ancestry. Two of Brady's great-great-grandparents on his father's side, John and Bridget Brady, were Irish refugees from the Great Famine who moved to San Francisco from Boston before the American Civil War. They were accompanied by Bridget's sister Ann and her husband Lawrence Meegan, the parents of the 19th-century American Major League Baseball player "Steady" Pete Meegan. Brady's great-uncle Michael Buckley Jr. was the first American prisoner of war in World War II.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the 1980s, Brady regularly attended San Francisco 49ers games at Candlestick Park, where he was a fan of quarterback Joe Montana; Brady called Montana his idol and one of his inspirations. At age four, Brady attended the , against the Dallas Cowboys, in which Montana threw The Catch to Dwight Clark. As a child, Brady attended football camp at the College of San Mateo, where he was taught to throw the football by camp counselor and future NFL/AFL quarterback Tony Graziani. Despite the rivalry between the two teams, Brady grew up as a Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics fan.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, where he graduated in 1995. He played football, basketball, and baseball in high school. He played against Bellarmine College Preparatory rival Pat Burrell in both football and baseball. Brady began his football career as the backup quarterback on the Padres junior varsity team. At first, Brady was not good enough to start on the 0–8 JV team, which had not scored a touchdown all year. Brady ascended to the starting position when the starting quarterback was injured. He became the varsity starter in his junior year and held the position until he graduated. By Brady's senior year, he was striving to be noticed by college coaches. He created highlight tapes and sent them to schools he considered attending. This led to strong interest from many football programs around the nation.


title: Tom Brady

text: The process of recruiting was much different during Brady's time, when athletes' rankings were not as prominent. In terms of recruiting in the 2000s, Brady would have been considered a four-star recruit. In essence, he was a highly rated prospect. Brady was also on Blue Chip Illustrated as well as a Prep Football Report All-American selection. After his recruiting process, he narrowed his list to five schools. "Probably the ones that we did hear from and ultimately pared the list to were Cal–Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Michigan and Illinois”, his father said. As a Cal fan, his father hoped that Brady would attend the nearby Cal, where Brady was a silent commit, and that he would be able to watch his son play.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady was also known as a great baseball player in high school. He was a left-handed-batting catcher with power. His skills impressed MLB scouts, and he was drafted in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos. The Expos projected Brady as a potential All-Star, with then-GM Kevin Malone claiming he had the potential to be "one of the greatest catchers ever". The Expos offered him money typical of that offered to a late second-round or early third-round pick, but when Brady learned of the interest in his playing football, he chose football over baseball. Brady was recruited by Michigan assistant Bill Harris, signing to play for the University of Michigan in 1995. He finished his high school football career by completing 236 of 447 passes for 3,702 yards and 31 touchdowns. He also won All-State and All-Far West honors and the team's Most Valuable Player Award.


title: Tom Brady

text: During summer break of 1998 and 1999, Brady was an intern at Merrill Lynch. He was inducted into the Junípero Serra High School Hall of Fame in 2003, joining fellow Serra High graduates Barry Bonds, Lynn Swann, Gregg Jefferies, and Jim Fregosi, among many others. When Brady visited the school in 2012, two weeks after Super Bowl XLVI, administrators announced that they named the football stadium Brady Family Stadium.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady played college football at the University of Michigan from 1995 to 1999. After redshirting in 1995, Brady spent the next two years as a backup quarterback, while teammate and future NFL quarterback Brian Griese led the 1997 Wolverines to an undefeated season, which was capped by a victory in the Rose Bowl and a share of the national championship. When he initially enrolled at Michigan, Brady was seventh on the depth chart, and he had an intense struggle to get some playing time. At one point, Brady hired a sports psychologist to help him cope with frustration and anxiety; he even considered transferring to the University of California, Berkeley to play for the California Golden Bears. He worked closely with assistant athletic director Greg Harden, who met with Brady every week to build his confidence and to maximize his performance on the field. Brady told "60 Minutes" in 2014: "He will always be somebody I rely on for sound advice and mentorship. He has helped me with my own personal struggles in both athletics and in life. Greg really pushed me in a direction that I wasn't sure I could go."


title: Tom Brady

text: On September 28, 1996, Brady appeared in his first collegiate game after Michigan was up 35–3 against UCLA late in the fourth quarter. His first ever pass attempt was intercepted by Phillip Ward and returned for a 42-yard touchdown.


title: Tom Brady

text: Under Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, Brady battled for the starting job with Drew Henson and ultimately started every game in the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Brady was All-Big Ten honorable mention both seasons, and was the team captain in his senior year.


title: Tom Brady

text: During his first full year as starter, he set new Michigan records for most pass attempts and completions in a season, for a total of 214. He set a school record for completions in a 31–16 loss against Ohio State in 1998, a season in which Michigan shared the Big Ten Conference title. Brady capped that season with a 45–31 win over Arkansas in the Citrus Bowl.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the 1999 season, Brady had to once again hold off Henson for the starting job. The two players platooned during the season's first seven games, with Brady playing the first quarter, Henson the second and Carr then deciding upon a quarterback for the second half. The 1999 Michigan Wolverines started with a 5–0 record, including a 26–22 win over Notre Dame, and a road win against eventual powerhouse Wisconsin. Against Michigan State, Brady was not chosen to play the second half; however, after being reinserted into the game with Michigan down by 17 points, he nearly led Michigan all the way back before losing 34–31. After a 300-yard passing game the following week, Carr went exclusively with Brady for the remainder of the season. Brady went on to lead Michigan to multiple 4th-quarter comebacks, including a 31–27 win against Penn State. He also led them out of a close game against Indiana, 34–31, heading into the regular season's final game as winners of three straight and earning him the moniker of "Comeback Kid".


title: Tom Brady

text: Michigan concluded the regular season against Ohio State; this was a dramatic game with a trip to the Orange Bowl on the line. With five minutes left, tied 17–17, Brady led Michigan to the winning score. He led Michigan to an overtime win in the Orange Bowl over Alabama, throwing for 369 yards and four touchdowns, leading the team back from a pair of 14-point deficits in regulation (14–0 in the first half, and 28–14 in the second). He threw the game-winning score on a bootleg to tight end Shawn Thompson. Michigan won the game when Alabama missed an extra point following its own touchdown.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the two seasons that Brady started at Michigan, he posted a 20–5 record, including wins at the 1999 Citrus Bowl and the 2000 Orange Bowl. Brady finished his career ranking third in Michigan history with 710 attempts and 442 completions, fourth with 5,351 yards and 62.3 completion percentage, and fifth with 35 touchdown passes. He graduated from Michigan in December 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in General Studies.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady was a lightly regarded prospect coming out of college, with an unimpressive NFL Scouting Combine performance reinforcing this reputation. As a result, he was not selected until the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, 199th overall, and was the seventh quarterback taken. Brady's success as a passer has been attributed to his work ethic, competitive spirit, pocket awareness, and intelligence.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady has started 372 games (325 regular season, 47 playoff) in 23 seasons, the most for an NFL quarterback. His first 20 seasons were with the Patriots, which is also the most for an NFL quarterback with one franchise. He has served as the primary starter in 20 of his seasons, holding a backup role during his rookie campaign and missing nearly all the 2008 season due to a knee injury. The 2008 season marks the only time that Brady has not started because of injury. Brady has never had a losing season as the starter and only missed the playoffs in 2002, the first year he started all 16 regular season games. With the Patriots, Brady led the team to 17 AFC East titles. He led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 to a wild card berth, the only time his team did not make the playoffs as a division winner, and an NFC South title the following season.


title: Tom Brady

text: The winningest quarterback in NFL history, Brady has won 246 regular season games and 35 postseason games for a combined 281 wins. Brady holds a winning percentage, which is the highest among NFL quarterbacks who have started 100 games. He is the only NFL quarterback to win 200 regular season games and his 35 postseason victories are more than twice those of any other quarterback. Brady is also the only NFL quarterback to win all 16 regular season games, which he accomplished in 2007. In 2021, Brady became one of four quarterbacks to defeat all 32 NFL teams. Brady has the most Pro Bowl selections in NFL history at 15 and was named league MVP three times in 2007, 2010, and 2017. His 2010 MVP was awarded in a unanimous decision; the first time this distinction was achieved. Brady was also named Male Athlete of the Year in 2007, making him third NFL player to receive the award, joining Joe Montana. He and Montana are the only players to win multiple NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP awards.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady's 20 seasons as the primary starter have led to seven Super Bowl titles, the most of any player and more than any NFL franchise. Overall, he appeared in a record 10 Super Bowls; half of the seasons in which he was the primary starter and more than any NFL franchise other than the Patriots. He and Peyton Manning are the only starting quarterbacks to win the Super Bowl for more than one franchise, with Brady winning six for the Patriots and one for the Buccaneers. In his seven victories, Brady also set the record for Super Bowl MVP awards with five. Having earned Super Bowl MVP honors with both New England and Tampa Bay, Brady is the only player to win the award with multiple franchises.


title: Tom Brady

text: Holding nearly every major quarterback record, Brady is the NFL leader in career passing yards, attempts, and touchdown passes in both the regular season and playoffs. He is the only NFL quarterback to have 600 passing touchdowns in the regular season. Brady also has the career and postseason records for completions. In his 325 career starts, he is the only NFL quarterback to have three separate streaks of consecutive starts of over 100 games. Brady's 111 consecutive starts from 2001 to 2008 ended because of his injury and his 112 consecutive starts from 2009 to 2016 ended after he was suspended for the Deflategate controversy. Since returning from the Deflategate suspension, Brady has an ongoing streak of 102 consecutive starts. His longevity has also led to him setting several age records in the NFL. Brady is the NFL's oldest quarterback to be named to the Pro Bowl (age 44), be named Super Bowl MVP (age 43), win a Super Bowl as the starting quarterback (age 43), and be named league MVP (age 40). As of the 2022 season, he is the last player drafted before 2004 on an NFL roster.


title: Tom Brady

text: On the Patriots, Brady and head coach Bill Belichick formed the NFL's most successful quarterback–head coach tandem. They were consistently credited with the Patriots' dynasty from 2001 to 2019, resulting in the dynasty being named the Brady–Belichick era after them. The dynasty is regarded as one of the greatest in sports history, with Brady's successes helping the Patriots set the records for Super Bowl appearances (11) and wins (6, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers). During Brady's first season as the primary starter, the franchise won its first championship in Super Bowl XXXVI, with consecutive titles following in 2003 and 2004. The Patriots won an NFL-record 21 consecutive games (regular season and playoffs) during this period, while Brady won 10 consecutive postseason games (also his first 10 postseason games), another NFL record.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady maintained the Patriots' status as perennial postseason contenders throughout his tenure, although they did not win another Super Bowl until a decade after their third. His next two appearances both ended in upset defeats to the New York Giants; the first loss in 2007's Super Bowl XLII also prevented Brady and the Patriots from obtaining a perfect 19–0 season. Brady returned to dominant postseason form in 2014 when he led the Patriots to their fourth title in Super Bowl XLIX. This was followed by Brady making three consecutive Super Bowl appearances from 2016 to 2018, which secured New England's fifth and sixth titles in Super Bowl LI and Super Bowl LIII.


title: Tom Brady

text: When Brady signed with Tampa Bay in 2020, the team had not reached the postseason since 2007 and had not won a playoff game since 2002. Brady helped end both droughts en route to the Buccaneers winning Super Bowl LV. During the 2021 season, he set the season record for completions and led the league in passing yards and touchdowns. His passing yards during the season were also a career high.


title: Tom Brady

text: One of the NFL's most decorated and accomplished players, Brady is widely cited as the greatest quarterback of all time. He is likewise considered the NFL's greatest player and one of the greatest athletes in sports history.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady was selected with pick number 199, a compensatory pick, in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He and his family believed that Brady would be drafted in the second or third round; they watched the draft on television, stunned as six other quarterbacks were drafted before he was. Brady was so embarrassed that he briefly left the family home during the sixth round, and cried when recalling the experience for an interview 11 years later. Brady later said that when the Patriots notified him that he would be drafted, he was grateful he would not "have to be an insurance salesman". According to Michael Holley's book "Patriot Reign", the Patriots were considering Brady and Tim Rattay, both of whom had received positive reviews from then-quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein. Ultimately, the Patriots front office chose Brady. Considering his subsequent success, many analysts have called Brady the best NFL draft pick of all time. Patriots owner Robert Kraft recalled: "I still have the image of Tom Brady coming down the old Foxboro Stadium steps with that pizza box under his arm, a skinny beanpole, and when he introduced himself to me and said 'Hi Mr. Kraft,' he was about to say who he was, but I said 'I know who you are, you're Tom Brady. You're our sixth round draft choice,'" recalled Kraft. "And he looked me in the eye and said 'I'm the best decision this organization has ever made.' It looks like he could be right."


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady started the 2000 season as the fourth-string quarterback, behind starter Drew Bledsoe and backups John Friesz and Michael Bishop; by the end of the season, he was number two on the depth chart behind Bledsoe. During his rookie season, he was 1-for-3 passing, for six yards. Tight end Rod Rutledge caught Brady's first and only completed pass of the season in a 34–9 loss to the Detroit Lions on November 23.


title: Tom Brady

text: With Bledsoe as the starting quarterback, the Patriots opened the 2001 season with a 23–17 road loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. In their second game and home opener on September 23, the Patriots squared off against their AFC East rivals, the New York Jets. Bledsoe was again the starter; in the fourth quarter, he suffered internal bleeding after a hit from Jets linebacker Mo Lewis. Bledsoe returned for the next series, but was replaced with Brady for the Patriots' final series of the game. New York held on to win 10–3, and the Patriots fell to 0–2 on the season. Brady was named the starter for the season's third game, against the Indianapolis Colts, in which the Patriots posted a 44–13 win.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the Patriots' fifth game, Brady began to find his stride. Trailing the visiting San Diego Chargers 26–16 in the fourth quarter, he led the Patriots on two scoring drives to force overtime, and another in overtime to set up a winning field goal. Brady finished the game with 33 of 54, for 364 yards and two touchdowns, and was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career. The following week, Brady again played well during the rematch at Indianapolis, with a passer rating of 148.3 in a 38–17 win. The Patriots went on to win eleven of the fourteen games Brady started, and six straight to finish the regular season, winning the AFC East and entering the NFL playoffs with a first-round bye. He finished the 2001 season with 2,843 passing yards and 18 touchdowns, earning an invitation to the Pro Bowl.


title: Tom Brady

text: In Brady's first playoff game, he threw for 312 yards against the Oakland Raiders and led the Patriots back from a ten-point fourth-quarter deficit to send the game to overtime, where they won on an Adam Vinatieri field goal. A controversial play occurred in the fourth quarter of that game. Trailing by three points, Brady lost control of the ball after being hit by Raiders cornerback and former Michigan teammate Charles Woodson. Oakland initially recovered the ball but, citing the "tuck rule"—which states that any forward throwing motion by a quarterback begins a pass even if the quarterback loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body—referee Walt Coleman overturned the call on instant replay, ruling it an incomplete pass rather than a fumble. Brady finished the game 32-of-52 for 312 passing yards and one interception.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Brady injured his knee, and was relieved by Bledsoe. The Patriots won the game by a score of 24–17. Subsequently, Las Vegas oddsmakers positioned them as 14-point underdogs against the NFC champion St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady returned from his knee injury in the AFC Championship Game to start in the Super Bowl a week later at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Despite being heavy underdogs, the Patriots played well, holding the Rams' high-powered offense in check through the first three quarters. The Rams rallied from a 17–3 deficit to tie the game with 1:30 left in regulation. The Patriots then got the ball back at their own 17-yard line with no timeouts remaining. Sportscaster and former Super Bowl-winning coach John Madden argued that the Patriots should run out the clock and try to win the game in overtime. Instead, Brady drove the Patriots' offense down the field to the Rams' 31-yard line before spiking the ball with seven seconds left. Kicker Adam Vinatieri converted a 48-yard field goal as time expired to give the Patriots a 20–17 win and their first ever league championship. Brady was named Super Bowl MVP while throwing for 145 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions. At the age of 24 years and six months, Brady became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, surpassing Joe Namath (III) and Joe Montana (XVI). Bledsoe was traded to the Buffalo Bills in April, which cemented Brady's status as the Patriots' starting quarterback in 2002.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the Patriots' season opener, Brady had 294 passing yards and three touchdowns in the 30–14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and earned his third AFC Offensive Player of the Week title. Brady and the Patriots finished the season at 9–7, tied with the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins for the best record in the division; however, the Patriots lost the division title to the Jets on tiebreakers. Additionally, the Patriots lost the tiebreaker to the Cleveland Browns for the final wild card spot, causing them to miss the playoffs entirely. Though Brady posted a career-low single-season passer rating of 85.7 and a career-high of 14 interceptions, he threw for a league-leading 28 touchdown passes.


title: Tom Brady

text: After opening the 2003 season at 2–2, Brady led the Patriots to twelve consecutive victories to finish the regular season at 14–2 to win the AFC East. In Week 14, a 12–0 victory over the Miami Dolphins, he recorded a 36-yard punt. Brady finished with 3,620 passing yards and 23 touchdowns, and was third in NFL MVP voting to co-winners Peyton Manning and Steve McNair.


title: Tom Brady

text: After earning a first-round bye, the Patriots defeated the Tennessee Titans in the , 17–14. In the , they defeated the Indianapolis Colts, 24–14. In Super Bowl XXXVIII, Brady led the Patriots to a 32–29 victory over the NFC champion Carolina Panthers and was named Super Bowl MVP for the second time. During the game, Brady threw for 354 yards with three touchdowns and set the record for most completions by a quarterback in a Super Bowl with 32. With 1:08 left in the fourth quarter and the score tied 29–29, Brady led a drive with five completions to put the Patriots in position for the game-winning 41-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri.


title: Tom Brady

text: During the 2004 season, Brady helped the Patriots set an NFL record with 21 straight wins dating from the previous year, an accomplishment honored in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (though for official records, the NFL considers it an 18-game regular season winning streak; it does not count playoff games). New England finished with a 14–2 record, equaling their 2003 record and the best regular-season record ever for a defending champion. The Patriots also won the AFC East title for the third time in four years. Brady threw for 3,692 yards and 28 touchdowns, with a 92.6 passer rating, and was voted to his second Pro Bowl.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the playoffs, Brady led the Patriots to wins over the Indianapolis Colts in the by a score of 20–3 and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the by a score of 41–27. Brady played his best game of the year in Pittsburgh despite requiring intravenous treatment the previous night when he ran a temperature of 103 °F. Against the NFL's best defense, he recorded a quarterback passer rating of 130.5, his highest of the season. In Super Bowl XXXIX, the Patriots narrowly defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 24–21, capturing their third championship in four years. They became the first franchise since the Dallas Cowboys to do so. As of 2021, the 2004 New England Patriots remain the last NFL team to win a second straight Super Bowl. Brady threw for 236 yards and two touchdowns in the win.


title: Tom Brady

text: During the 2005 season, injuries suffered by running backs Corey Dillon, Patrick Pass, and Kevin Faulk forced the Patriots to rely more on Brady's passing. Brady also had to adjust to new center Russ Hochstein and running back Heath Evans. Brady finished the season with 4,110 yards and 26 touchdowns, the former of which led the league. He and the Patriots finished with a 10–6 record, winning their third straight AFC East title. He was named to his third Pro Bowl at the end of the season.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the playoffs, Brady recorded 201 passing yards and three passing touchdowns to help lead the Patriots to a 28–3 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the . In the the Patriots lost 27–13 to the Denver Broncos. Brady threw for 341 yards in the game with one touchdown and two interceptions in the first playoff loss of his career after ten consecutive victories. After the season's end, it was revealed that Brady had been playing with a sports hernia since December.


title: Tom Brady

text: In 2006, Brady led the Patriots to a 12–4 record and the fourth seed in the AFC playoffs. Brady finished the regular season with 3,529 yards and 24 touchdowns. He was not among the players initially selected to the Pro Bowl, although he was offered an injury-replacement selection when San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers was forced to withdraw. Brady ended up declining the invitation.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the postseason, the Patriots first hosted their division rivals, the New York Jets, in the . The Patriots defeated the Jets 37–16, as Brady went 22–34 for 212 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots traveled to San Diego to take on the Chargers in the . This was Brady's first playoff game in his home state of California. Brady and the Patriots struggled against the Chargers, whom many had picked as favorites to win Super Bowl XLI. With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Patriots down by eight points, Brady and the Patriots started a key drive that would ultimately decide the game. During the drive, Brady threw a fourth-down interception to safety Marlon McCree, but wide receiver Troy Brown forced a fumble on McCree that wide receiver Reche Caldwell recovered to convert the first down. With a new set of downs, Brady threw a touchdown pass to Caldwell and Faulk scored the two-point conversion to tie the game. On what would be the Patriots' final drive, Brady threw a 49-yard pass play to Caldwell, setting up a Stephen Gostkowski field goal that gave New England a 24–21 lead with 1:10 remaining. The Chargers drove down the field, but Nate Kaeding missed a game-tying field goal attempt, as the Patriots held on to win.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the , the Patriots traveled to Indianapolis to play the Indianapolis Colts, marking the third time the Patriots played the Colts in four postseasons. The Patriots led at halftime, 21–6; however, Peyton Manning led the Colts to a comeback. Brady threw a late-game interception and the Patriots lost the game to the Colts, 38–34. Brady finished the loss 21 of 34 for 232 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.


title: Tom Brady

text: Playing with an overhauled receiver corps—in the 2007 off-season, the Patriots acquired wide receivers Donté Stallworth, Wes Welker, Kelley Washington, and Randy Moss; tight end Kyle Brady; and running back Sammy Morris—Brady enjoyed what many sportswriters described as one of the best seasons by a quarterback. Brady led the Patriots to the first 16–0 regular-season record in NFL history, outscoring opponents by an average score of 37–17. He also attained numerous career, franchise, and NFL records and milestones in the process. He was named as the AFC Offensive Player of the Week five times that year. In a Week 6 game against the Dallas Cowboys, he had a career-high five passing touchdowns in a 48–27 win. The win tied him with Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach for the most wins ever by a starting quarterback in his first 100 regular-season starts, with 76. The next week, in part of a 49–28 win against the Miami Dolphins, he had another record day, with a career-high six passing touchdowns, setting a franchise record. He also had the first game with a perfect passer rating of his career. Two weeks later, as part of a come-from-behind 24–20 victory against the Indianapolis Colts, he threw for another three touchdowns, the ninth consecutive game in which he had done so, breaking Peyton Manning's NFL record of eight. During the last game of the season against the New York Giants, Brady threw his 50th touchdown of the season, breaking Peyton Manning's single-season record of 49 from the 2004 season.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady finished the season with 4,806 passing yards, 50 touchdown passes, eight interceptions, and a career-high 117.2 passer rating. It was unanimously voted the greatest passing season of all time by ESPN in 2013. His 50:8 touchdown to interception ratio was, at the time, an NFL record. He became the first quarterback to pass for 50 touchdowns. He led the Patriots to the first undefeated regular season since the 16-game schedule was implemented in 1978. He directed an offense that scored a then-NFL record 589 points and 75 total touchdowns. The team's 50 total touchdown passes is the fourth-most ever in a season. For his efforts, Brady was named the Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year. He was also honored by the Associated Press as their Male Athlete of the Year, the first time an NFL player earned the honor since Joe Montana won the award in 1990. He was named as a First-Team All-Pro and to his fourth career Pro Bowl as a result of his historic season.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the Patriots' first playoff game, a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Brady began the game with an NFL postseason record 16 consecutive completed passes, and finished the game with 26 completions in 28 attempts, a completion rate of 92.9%. That mark was the highest single-game completion percentage (with at least 20 attempts) in NFL history, regular season or postseason. With the win, the Patriots matched the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only team to win 17 consecutive games in one season.


title: Tom Brady

text: Statistically, Brady did not fare as well in the against the San Diego Chargers, throwing for 209 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions. Nevertheless, the Patriots won their 18th game of the season, 21–12, to advance to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in seven seasons. Brady, with the 100th win of his career, also set an NFL record for the fewest games needed by a starting quarterback to do so: his 100–26 record is sixteen games better than Joe Montana's.


title: Tom Brady

text: In Super Bowl XLII against the New York Giants, Brady was pressured heavily and sacked five times. The Patriots managed to take the lead with a Brady touchdown to Moss with less than three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Giants were able to drive and score a last-minute touchdown to upset the Patriots 17–14, taking away what would have been the first perfect season since the NFL expanded its regular season to 16 games.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the Patriots' season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium, Brady's left knee was seriously injured midway through the first quarter on a hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard; Brady left the game and did not return. The team later confirmed that he would require surgery, and it would prematurely end his 2008 season. Brady tore both his anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament. The injury ended Brady's streak of 111 consecutive starts. Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction at the Los Angeles Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic on October 6, using Brady's patellar tendon graft to replace the torn ligament, and also repaired his medial collateral ligament, through a separate incision in his left knee. An infection in the wound resulted in further debridement surgery several times since the original procedure. Brady received IV antibiotics for this infection which, at the time, threatened to delay his rehab. Despite Brady's absence, the Patriots managed to finish the 2008 season with an 11–5 record; however, due to tiebreakers, the Patriots not only failed to win the AFC East division title, but missed the playoffs altogether for the first time since the 2002 season.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the 2009 season opener against the Buffalo Bills, Brady's first game in more than a year, he threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns. In the final three minutes of the game, the Patriots were down 24–13 before Brady and tight end Benjamin Watson connected on two straight touchdowns to lead the Patriots to a 25–24 win.


title: Tom Brady

text: On October 18, 2009, under blizzard conditions, Brady set an NFL record against the Tennessee Titans for most touchdowns in a quarter, throwing five in the second quarter. Brady finished the game with six touchdowns, tying his career-high from the 2007 season, and 380 yards, completing 29-of-34 attempts, finishing with a nearly perfect passer rating of 152.8. The Patriots' 59–0 victory over the Titans tied the record for the largest margin of victory since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, and set a record for largest halftime lead in NFL history, which was 45–0.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady finished the 2009 regular season with 4,398 yards passing and 28 touchdowns for a 96.2 rating, despite a broken right ring finger and three fractured ribs, which were suffered over the course of the season. He was selected as a reserve to the 2010 Pro Bowl and named the 2009 NFL Comeback Player of the Year.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady ended the 2009 season throwing for 154 passing yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions in a 33–14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. This was his first career home playoff loss and the Patriots' first home playoff loss since 1978.


title: Tom Brady

text: On September 10, 2010, Brady signed a four-year, $72 million contract extension, making him the highest-paid player in the NFL. The extension included $48.5 million in guaranteed money.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady became the fastest quarterback to achieve 100 regular season wins by helping his team defeat the Miami Dolphins 41–14 on October 4. On November 25, in a game against the Detroit Lions, he earned a perfect passer rating for the second time in his career. The next week, a 45–3 victory over the New York Jets, Brady set a record of 26 consecutive regular-season home wins, breaking Brett Favre's record. Brady threw for 3,900 yards with 36 touchdowns and only four interceptions on the season.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady was selected as a starter to the 2011 Pro Bowl. However, he pulled out of the game (and was replaced by his former backup Matt Cassel, who then played for the Kansas City Chiefs) after undergoing surgery for a stress fracture in his right foot dating back to 2008. Brady was also the only unanimous selection for the AP All-Pro Team and was named the 2010 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year. By unanimous decision, he won the MVP award for the second time in his career. On the inaugural "NFL Top 100 Players" list, Brady was ranked as the best player in the NFL by his peers.


title: Tom Brady

text: After earning the #1 seed and a bye week, the Patriots lost to the New York Jets in the , 28–21. Brady finished the game 29-of-45 for 299 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception which ended his NFL record of consecutive pass attempts without an interception at 340.


title: Tom Brady

text: In Week 1 of the 2011 season, Brady threw for a career-high 517 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception in a 38–24 win over the Miami Dolphins and earned AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. In the game, he threw a record-tying 99-yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker. Brady would go on to have a statistically successful season, and in the regular season finale against the Buffalo Bills, he became the fourth quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards in a season, finishing with 5,235; although Brady surpassed Dan Marino's longstanding record of 5,084 passing yards, he finished the season second in passing yards behind Drew Brees' 5,476. The Patriots finished the season 13–3 and clinched the AFC's #1 seed. For his efforts in the 2011 season, Brady was named to the Pro Bowl and was named as the fourth-best player in the NFL on the "NFL Top 100 Players of 2012" by his peers.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady led the Patriots to a 45–10 win over the Denver Broncos in the , where he tied an NFL playoff record shared by Daryle Lamonica and Steve Young, throwing for six touchdown passes. The win gave Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick sole possession of the NFL record for postseason wins by a quarterback–head coach duo with 15. In the game against the Baltimore Ravens, Brady failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in 36 games, though he did score a one-yard rushing touchdown late in the game. A missed field goal from Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff gave Brady and the Patriots a 23–20 victory, sending Brady to his fifth Super Bowl.


title: Tom Brady

text: In Super Bowl XLVI, Brady and the Patriots met the New York Giants in a rematch of Super Bowl XLII. On the Patriots' first offensive series, Brady was penalized for intentional grounding in the end zone, giving up a safety which gave the Giants an early 2–0 lead. Brady would bounce back from this early blunder, leading a Super Bowl record-tying 96-yard touchdown drive to close the first half and at one point completing 16 consecutive passes to give him a 20-of-23 mark partway into the third quarter, another Super Bowl record. However, as was also the case four years earlier, the Patriots could not hold a late lead and allowed Eli Manning to lead the Giants to a game-winning touchdown with less than a minute left, giving Brady his second career Super Bowl loss.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady started all 16 regular season games of the 2012 season and led the Patriots to a 12–4 record. Brady became the first quarterback to lead his team to ten division titles. With a 557-point total, the Patriots became the first team to score at least 500 points in a season four different times, with Brady leading all four squads, also a record. He finished the season with 4,827 passing yards, 34 touchdowns, only eight interceptions, and a passer rating of 98.7. Brady was named to the Pro Bowl for the eighth time in his career. On the "NFL Top 100 Players of 2013", Brady was ranked fourth by his fellow players for the second consecutive year.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady led the Patriots to a 41–28 win over the Houston Texans in the . With the victory, Brady surpassed Joe Montana for most career playoff wins, with 17. The Patriots were then upset by the eventual Super Bowl XLVII champion Baltimore Ravens, 28–13, in the . He suffered his first career loss at home when leading by halftime, in which he was previously 67–0.


title: Tom Brady

text: On February 25, 2013, Brady and the Patriots agreed on a three-year contract extension, which kept him with the team through 2017. Sportswriter Peter King called it an "amazing" deal and also noted that it reflected Patriots owner Robert Kraft's desire to make sure that Brady retired as a Patriot.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady and the Patriots began the season with much upheaval on the offensive side of the ball. Tight end Rob Gronkowski was injured and Aaron Hernandez was arrested. Wes Welker departed to the Denver Broncos, Danny Woodhead left in free agency for the San Diego Chargers, and Brandon Lloyd was released from the team. In order to replace the five players, the Patriots signed Danny Amendola in free agency from the Rams, drafted rookie wide receivers Aaron Dobson and Josh Boyce, and signed undrafted rookie free agent wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins. In the first two games of the season, Brady completed 52% of his passes and had three touchdowns and one interception.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady was in pursuit of Drew Brees' record of at least one touchdown in 54 consecutive regular season games and saw the streak end at 52 games in a Week 5 loss against the Cincinnati Bengals.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady and the Patriots would go on to finish the season well, as Brady was named to the Pro Bowl for the ninth time in his career and was ranked third on the "NFL Top 100 Players of 2014" list in the off-season. The Patriots finished the season 12–4 to earn the second seed in the AFC and a first-round bye. In the matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, Brady made his 25th playoff appearance, breaking Brett Favre's career record for playoff appearances by a quarterback. The Patriots won 43–22 behind a four-touchdown performance from running back LeGarrette Blount. The following week, the Patriots lost 26–16 to the Denver Broncos in the .


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady started the 2014 season with a 33–20 loss to the Miami Dolphins. It was Brady's first opening day loss since the 2003 season. After going 2–1 in the next three games, Brady helped lead the Patriots to a seven-game winning streak. In that stretch, Brady had two games with four touchdown passes and one game with five. Brady clinched his NFL record 12th AFC East division title with a Week 14 win against the San Diego Chargers, later in the season. Brady was named to his tenth career Pro Bowl and was ranked third by his fellow players on the "NFL Top 100 Players of 2015" list.


title: Tom Brady

text: In a 35–31 win over the Ravens, Brady threw for three touchdowns and ran in a fourth, breaking Curtis Martin's club record for rushing touchdowns in the playoffs; Brady also broke Joe Montana's record for playoff touchdowns with 46. After the Ravens scored on their first two possessions, the Patriots were quickly down 14–0, but would end up tying the game 14–14. Brady threw an interception at the end of the first half, which wound up leading to a Baltimore 21–14 halftime lead. Down 28–14, Brady engineered an 80-yard drive, culminating in a touchdown to Rob Gronkowski to cut the lead to 28–21. The Patriots tied the game once again at 28 off of a trick play where Brady passed laterally to Julian Edelman who then threw a 51-yard touchdown to Amendola. Ravens kicker Justin Tucker converted a 25-yard field goal to give Baltimore a 31–28 fourth quarter lead. Brady got the ball back, and threw a 23-yard touchdown to wide receiver Brandon LaFell to give the Patriots their first lead, 35–31, with 5:13 remaining. After a Duron Harmon interception and a Joe Flacco Hail Mary attempt failed, Brady clinched his record ninth appearance. It was his fourth straight overall. After a 45–7 blowout of the Indianapolis Colts, Brady advanced to play in his sixth Super Bowl, breaking a tie with John Elway for most career Super Bowl appearances by a quarterback.


title: Tom Brady

text: In Super Bowl XLIX, Brady completed 37-of-50 passes for 328 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. He guided a then-record ten-point fourth quarter comeback as the Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28–24 to give Brady his fourth Super Bowl ring, tying him with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for most Super Bowl victories by a starting quarterback. He was named Super Bowl MVP for the third time, tying Montana's record. Brady's 37 completed passes in the game set a Super Bowl record at the time, which Brady himself would break in Super Bowl LI two years later.


title: Tom Brady

text: On May 6, 2015, the NFL published a 243-page report regarding the deflation of footballs used in the previous season's AFC Championship Game. The report concluded that, more likely than not, Brady was at least generally aware of the intentional deflation. On May 11, Brady was suspended for four games by the NFL for his involvement based on "substantial and credible evidence" that Brady knew Patriots employees were deflating footballs and that he was uncooperative with the investigators. That day, Troy Vincent—NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations—penned a letter to Brady that stated in part: "Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football." Brady, through the NFL Players Association, appealed the suspension on May 14.


title: Tom Brady

text: On July 28, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld Brady's four-game suspension. Goodell cited Brady's destruction of his cell phone as a critical factor in his decision to uphold Brady's suspension. The NFL also filed papers in federal court seeking to confirm Roger Goodell's decision. Brady gave permission to the NFLPA to appeal the suspension in federal court, and released a statement on his Facebook page that expressed disappointment in and criticism of Goodell's decision to uphold the suspension.


title: Tom Brady

text: Commentary on the initial punishment was mixed. Bleacher Report writer Mike Freeman made a statement agreeing with Goodell's decision, saying the penalties were "brutal, but it deserved to be." Various commentators also implied that the prior reputation of the Patriots organization as a team that bends rules appeared to factor into the harshness of the punishment. Others described the punishment as "firm but fair".


title: Tom Brady

text: On September 3, Judge Richard M. Berman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated Brady's suspension; this ruling allowed Brady to play in the first four games of the 2015 NFL season. In his decision, Judge Berman cited the NFL's failure to provide proper notice to Brady of the charges against him and the potential for a suspension. Post-appeal commentary also criticized Goodell for "manipulating Brady's testimony" at the appeal hearing in his decision.


title: Tom Brady

text: In the NFL Kickoff Game, Brady led the Patriots to a 28–21 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. He threw for 288 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to Rob Gronkowski. The Patriots' victory was the 161st victory of Brady's career, all with the Patriots, which surpassed the record held by former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre for most regular season wins by a starting quarterback with a single team. In Week 2, Brady threw for 466 yards and three touchdowns against the Buffalo Bills. Through the first five games of the season, Brady threw a total of 14 touchdowns with one interception and had a quarterback rating of 118.4. In Week 8, a 36–7 victory over the Miami Dolphins, he had 356 passing yards and four touchdowns to earn his 25th career AFC Offensive Player of the Week title.


title: Tom Brady

text: Despite Brady's success, the Patriots were hit by many injuries to key players on offense, including wide receiver Julian Edelman, and the Patriots eventually lost their first game against the Denver Broncos, who were without Peyton Manning, in Denver following a 10–0 start. The Patriots then lost three of their remaining five games to finish 12–4 for a fourth straight season, earning the 2-seed in the AFC. Brady finished the regular season with a league-leading 36 touchdown passes and seven interceptions. He was named to his 11th Pro Bowl (seventh straight), and was ranked as the second best player on the "NFL Top 100 Players of 2016" behind only league MVP Cam Newton.


title: Tom Brady

text: With the return of Julian Edelman from a foot injury, the Patriots defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the by a score of 27–20 after advancing with a first round bye. Brady completed 28 of 42 passes for 302 yards and two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown as he led the team to their fifth consecutive appearance in the AFC Championship. The Patriots advanced to the to face Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. It would turn out to be the 17th and final meeting between the two storied quarterbacks, as Manning would announce his retirement after the season ended. The Broncos' top-ranked defense limited Brady, who completed 27-of-56 passes, for 310 yards, two interceptions and a passing touchdown, all day, and the Patriots eventually lost the game 20–18 after a potential game-tying two-point conversion attempt failed with less than half a minute remaining.


title: Tom Brady

text: On February 29, 2016, Brady signed a two-year contract extension covering the 2018 and 2019 seasons. On March 3, the NFL appealed Judge Richard M. Berman's 2015 decision to vacate Brady's four-game suspension as punishment for his alleged role in the Deflategate scandal. At the hearing, the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit questioned Players Association lawyer Jeffrey L. Kessler and NFL lawyer Paul Clement, with Circuit Judge Denny Chin stating that "the evidence of ball tampering is compelling, if not overwhelming."


title: Tom Brady

text: On April 25, the decision to vacate Brady's four-game suspension was overturned by the U.S. Appeals Court. Circuit Judge Barrington Daniels Parker Jr., joined by Circuit Judge Chin, wrote that they could not "second-guess" the arbitration but were merely determining it "met the minimum legal standards established by the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947". Circuit Chief Judge Robert Katzmann dissented, writing that the NFL's fines for using stickum was "highly analogous" and that here "the Commissioner was doling out his own brand of industrial justice." On May 23, Brady appealed for his case to be reheard by the full U.S. 2nd Circuit Court. The 2nd Circuit Court denied Brady's request for an "en banc" hearing on July 13. On July 15, Brady announced that he would give up his Deflategate fight and accept his suspension for the first four regular season games of the 2016 season.


title: Tom Brady

text: After serving his four-game suspension, Brady made his 2016 season debut on October 9 on the road against the Cleveland Browns; he completed 28-of-40 passes for 406 yards and three touchdowns in a 33–13 victory to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week. Brady's outstanding numbers during his first four games following the suspension earned him the AFC Offensive Player of the Month award for October.


title: Tom Brady

text: In Week 11, Brady recorded four touchdowns and no interceptions in a 30–17 road win against the San Francisco 49ers. Those four touchdown passes gave him a total of 444 career regular season touchdown passes with one team, breaking Brett Favre's record with the Green Bay Packers. The following week, Brady completed 30-of-50 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns in a 22–17 road victory against the New York Jets. The win was also the Patriots' 500th victory (including playoffs) in franchise history. During this victory, Brady also became the fifth quarterback to record 60,000 career regular season passing yards, joining Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Drew Brees, and Dan Marino. The following week, Brady and the Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 26–10, giving Brady his record-201st career victory, including playoff games.


title: Tom Brady

text: With a victory over the Denver Broncos, the Patriots clinched an eighth consecutive AFC East title and a seventh consecutive first-round bye in the playoffs, both NFL records. On December 20, 2016, Brady was named to the Pro Bowl for the eighth straight season and 12th time overall. Brady ended the regular season with 28 passing touchdowns and only two interceptions for the regular season, breaking the previous TD:INT ratio record of Nick Foles's 27:2 figure set in 2013 with the Philadelphia Eagles. Brady was named to the AP All-Pro Second Team. Brady was also ranked first on the "NFL Top 100 Players of 2017" as the best player in the league, becoming the first player to be named as #1 twice since the listing began.


title: Tom Brady

text: Brady and the Patriots began their postseason run in the , hosting the Houston Texans, which held the league's No. 1 total defense. Brady completed 18-of-38 passes for 287 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions as the Patriots won 34–16, clinching a record sixth consecutive trip to the . In the AFC Championship, the Patriots hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brady completed 32-of-42 passes for 384 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions in the 36–17 victory. The win gave Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick their record seventh conference title as a quarterback–head coach tandem, and the Patriots an NFL record ninth Super Bowl appearance.