5 Players with most seasons played in the NFL feat. Tom Brady, Adam Vinatieri
If picturing an NFL landscape without Tom Brady feels weird to you, you're not alone. With 22 seasons of service officially coming to an end on Monday, Brady's reign of terror (at least to anyone outside of New England and/or Tampa Bay) is now subdued as we await his entry into the Hall of Fame in 2027.
The (arguably) GOAT announced his retirement this week, though some, perhaps made haggard by what Brady has done to their teams over the last two-plus decades, still persist that he'll rise from the proverbial gridiron grave for lone last scare.
As ink dries on Brady's retirement papers, SK ponders...
Where does Brady's tenure rank amongst the NFL's most seasoned veterans?
T-5: QB Tom Brady (22 seasons)
By now, anyone who has tuned in to even the smallest amount of NFL football knows of Brady's story as a sixth-round pick who more or less wrote the league's history book at the turn of the century.
When Brady took over Drew Bledsoe's franchise quarterbacking job in New England on a fateful evening in September 2001, he held onto the reins through 2019, pausing only for a medically induced absence in 2008. You may also be familiar with Brady's endless list of accomplishments, which we'll abridge to his record seven Super Bowl titles, three MVPs, and six All-Pro nominations...and, frankly, all of those illustrious accolades seem low in hindsight.
T-5: P Jeff Feagles (22 seasons)
Not only was Feagles up there in terms of seasons, he was well-accomplished in terms of games: from 1988 through 2009, not a single week of NFL action passed without him residing on an active roster, allowing him to appear in a league-record 352 consecutive games.
Other all-time marks held by Feagles include most career punts (1,713) and yardage (71,211) and he was also the final player featured in the famed Tecmo Super Bowl video game to announce his retirement.
T-4: K John Carney (23 seasons)
In such a long career, a single mistake perhaps defined John Carney's NFL career, namely his memorable miss on the extra point that followed the New Orleans Saints' famous River City Relay in 2003. Carney was the last player active in the 1980s to walk away from the game, doing so in 2010 after the latter of two stints with the Saints.
Carney is one of only two players in league history to play in four different decades. He also remains the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers' all-time leading scorer.
T-4: K Gary Anderson (23 seasons)
Another special teams legend remembered for a single mistake, Gary Anderson, left a mark across several locales. His Minnesota misfire in the 1998-99 NFC title game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons followed a season where he converted each and every one of his field goals and extra points, becoming the first leg to do so over the course of a full season.
Anderson was making history long before that star-crossed campaign, as he was the first South African native to appear in an NFL game upon his debut with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1982.