Tom Brady Has Passed for 100,000 Yards. Sort of.

Include the playoffs, after all, and all of Brady’s stats look better: 247 wins becomes 282; 634 touchdowns becomes 720; 7,523 completions becomes 8,688. Indeed, his “700th” touchdown pass was celebrated last December, even though he has not yet reached that total in the regular season.

The traditional method of counting career totals, omitting the playoff numbers, is a way of being fair. Some players get far fewer opportunities in postseason, possibly through no fault of their own, or expansions to the format. The counterargument, of course, is that playoff games are vital, and memorable, career-makers, and that ignoring them in the statistical record is irrational, or at the very least diminishes habitual winners who make deep playoff runs year after year.

Many of the legendary totals in every sport, though, look quite unfamiliar with the players’ postseason numbers added. Suddenly, Babe Ruth hit 729 home runs, not 714. Rickey Henderson had 1,439 steals, not 1,406. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 44,149 points, not 38,387. And Wayne Gretzky … hold on, there’s the whole question of whether to include his World Hockey Association stats. We’ll let that one rest.

Plenty of ink was spilled about Alex Rodriguez’s coming up just short of 700 career home runs. But his 13 postseason home runs lift his oh-so-close total of 696 to a comfortable 709.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/sports/football/tom-brady-100000-yards.html