Brady Bunch: QB has taken over 200 teammates to Super Bowl
Some are Hall of Famers who are among the biggest names in the sport. Others are anonymous role players whose contributions went mostly unnoticed by outsiders.
There are veterans who joined up for one final run at the title, and wide-eyed rookies who were thrust into the Super Bowl spotlight.
Their first names range from A to Z with eight guys named Brandon — a ninth named Brandin — and five guys named Kyle.
They all are part of the Brady Bunch, the 218 players who have appeared in a Super Bowl as Tom Brady’s teammate in his record nine previous trips to the title game with New England. That list will grow by more than 40 names next Sunday when Brady plays in his 10th Super Bowl and first with his new team in Tampa.
Of those players who have been part of Brady’s supporting cast, 164 got a Super Bowl ring out of the trip, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the players who were on a winning team in the Super Bowl since Brady became a starter in 2001.
Some went along for the ride and barely made an impact on those six titles Brady won. Others delivered the key plays that decided those games, whether it was Malcolm Butler’s gamesealing interception at the goal line against Seattle, or Adam Vinatieri’s inning kicks against St. Louis and Carolina.
Here’s a look at some of them:
MOST APPEARANCES
No one has played in more Super Bowls with Brady than Stephen Gostkowski, who went with him six times during their tenures in New England. Rob Gronkowski can join a group right behind Gostkowski this year with his fifth appearance, matching the number for Matt Light, Devin Mccourty, Patrick Chung and Matthew Slater.
There are 26 players who have played in three Super Bowl wins as Brady’s teammates, with Gronkowski hoping to join that group this year. Gronkowski played in Super Bowl wins following the 2014 and ’18 seasons but missed the epic comeback against Atlanta following the 2016 season with an injury.
HALL OF FAMERS
Three of Brady’s Super Bowl teammates have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame with more likely to come down the road. Ty Law, who played on the first three title teams in New England, was inducted to the Canton, Ohio shrine in 2019 and is the only one of the three to get there based mostly on their careers with Brady.
Randy Moss and Junior Seau joined up with Brady late in their careers and both made big impacts during the perfect 16-0 regular season in 2007, but came up short in their only trip to the Super Bowl.