Tom Brady stepping onto an NFL field wearing a uniform other than that of the New England Patriots isn’t going to feel right.
Even if the six-time Super Bowl champion somehow returns to MVP form in his 40s, and his new team is an immediate Super Bowl contender, aesthetically speaking it’ll look strange seeing him in Tampa Bay Buccaneers attire.
Brady certainly isn’t the first superstar synonymous with representing a single franchise to switch teams, but with the news that TB12 is taking his talents to Florida, we thought it worthwhile to look back at some other legendary athletes from the four major North American-based sports leagues who changed teams late in their careers and whose appearance in their new uniforms felt and looked peculiar.
Joe Montana on the Kansas City Chiefs
First there was Johnny Unitas who spent 17 years with the Baltimore Colts only to finish his career going 1-3 with the San Diego Chargers and Jets franchise QB Joe Namath, who after 12 years in New York spent his final season in a Rams jersey. Then came Montana’s move from California to the midwest.
Until Brady won his fourth, fifth and sixth Super Bowls, Montana was widely considered the best QB the NFL had ever seen thanks to his two MVPs and four Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers. After missing the 1991 season due to injury and losing his starting his job to Steve Young in 1992, Montana was dealt to K.C.
Montana and Brady are the two names you’re most likely to hear in the GOAT debate, and, yes, it’s a different situation because Montana was traded opposed to Brady leaving in free agency, but the vibe of an all-time great joining a new team late in his career is no doubt similar.
Unlike both Unitas and Namath, Montana actually had decent success on his new team going 17-8 in two seasons and even advancing to the 1993 AFC Championship, although many fans couldn’t get used to seeing Montana in a Chiefs uniform.
Michael Jordan on the Washington Wizards
It was weird enough seeing MJ wear No. 45 with the Bulls in 1995 after coming out of retirement. However, seeing Jordan join the Washington Wizards — a team in which he held a small ownership stake at the time — as a player in 2001 after three years away from the game was unfathomable.
Jordan averaged more than 20 points per game and was an all-star both seasons in Washington yet those teams finished 37-45 each year and didn’t manage to make the playoffs. Considering the legacy Jordan had built with the Chicago Bulls, helping lead them to six NBA titles, it was an incongruous way for Jordan to end his playing career.
Wayne Gretzky on the St. Louis Blues
When hockey fans think of The Great One, they think of his absurd dominance with the Edmonton Oilers, how he brought the sport into the mainstream in Hollywood during his time with the L.A. Kings, and they can picture him skating off the ice for the final time at Madison Square Garden as tears fell onto his New York Rangers sweater.
That’s why the 18 regular-season and 13 post-season games he spent with the St. Louis Blues in 1996 feels so bizarre. Briefly playing alongside Brett Hull was something special — the two did combine for 1,635 career goals after all — but they didn’t manage to advance to the Stanley Cup thanks to Steve Yzerman’s memorable Game 7 double-OT winner. Gretzky joined the Rangers that summer.
Jerry Rice/Emmitt Smith on the Seahawks/Cardinals
Rice is unquestionably the greatest WR of his era, amassing nearly 6,000 more yards than the next closest player. Rice led the NFL in receiving yards and TD receptions on six different occasions with the 49ers. At age 39 he became a Raider, which was odd at first, but he averaged more than 1,000 yards per season over three years in Oakland and made a Super Bowl appearance only to fall short against Jon Gruden’s Buccaneers. What was really different was seeing him suit up in 11 games with Seattle at age 42. He also had a cup of coffee with the Broncos before retiring but never saw regular-season action with Denver.
Smith, meanwhile, was a Dallas Cowboy through and through thanks to 13 seasons and three Super Bowls en route to breaking Walter Payton’s record for most rushing yards in NFL history. Bill Parcels and the Cowboys moved on in 2003 but Smith wasn’t ready to hang up his cleats so he signed a two-year deal with the Cardinals to extend his career.
This photo will live on in infamy.
Pete Rose on the Montreal Expos
Perhaps the most talented hitter in baseball history, Rose spent only 95 of his 3,562 career games playing for Montreal. Rose notably recorded his 4,000th career hit in an Expos uniform, joining Ty Cobb as the only other player in baseball to reach the milestone.
Considering the Expos haven’t been around since relocating to Washington more than 15 years ago, seeing Rose in the bleu, blanc et rouge is extra bizarre all these years later.
Hakeem Olajuwon on the Toronto Raptors
From the moment the seven-footer was selected first overall by the Houston Rockets in 1984 it was clear he would end up in the Hall of Fame. Olajuwon brought Houston two championships, two Finals MVPs and was selected to 12 All-NBA teams during his 17 years with the Rockets. A contract dispute resulted in a 2001 trade to Toronto.
Seeing Olajuwon in Raptors purple was rather perplexing.
Rockets owner Les Alexander said at the time that “Hakeem’s decision is disappointing for the entire Rockets organization. Hakeem Olajuwon has meant more to this franchise and this city than any other athlete in Houston history.”
Former Raptors GM Glen Grunwald later admitted acquiring Olajuwon, who signed a three-year deal with Toronto but retired after one season with the team due to injury, was a gamble that didn’t turn out how he hoped.
Karl Malone on the Los Angeles Lakers
Just like Olajuwon, Malone spent all but the final season of his Hall of Fame career with one franchise. The Jazz legend never did manage to win a championship in Utah, so he joined Shaq and Kobe ahead of the 2003-04 season for one last crack at a title. Malone missed half the regular season with a knee injury but played in the playoffs and the Lakers advanced to the Finals against the Pistons. Unfortunately for Malone, a knee injury sustained against Detroit caused him to miss the final game of the series and he had to watch from the sidelines as the Pistons were crowned champs.
Martin Brodeur on the St. Louis Blues
One of the NHL’s all-time great goaltenders, Brodeur played 1,259 games with the Devils from 1991 to 2014 and had a winning record in all but one of his 21 seasons in New Jersey. Even though his best days were behind him, Brodeur signed with the Blues midway through 2014-15 where he saw action in only seven games before retiring and eventually joining St. Louis’s front office. Brodeur’s final win was the 691st of his career, a record that won’t be broken for many years, if ever. It was his 125th shutout victory, also an NHL record.
Ken Griffey Jr. on the Chicago White Sox
Ken Griffey Jr. was a phenom on the Seattle Mariners. The centrefielder was a 10-time Gold Glove recipient, a seven-time Silver Slugger and led the AL in home runs on four occasions. He also spent nine years and hit 210 homers in the second half of his career with the Cincinnati Reds. In 2008, though, he played 41 games with the White Sox before returning to Seattle and finishing his career where it all started.
Bobby Orr on the Chicago Blackhawks
To say Bobby Orr is a legend in Boston would be an understatement. The man has been immortalized in statue form outside the TD Garden for goodness sake. The eight-time Norris winner wanted to end his career as a Bruin, something all hockey fans can agree would’ve felt proper, but a knee surgery and contract dispute changed things in 1975. Orr, influenced by his agent Alan Eagleson, ended up signing with the Blackhawks in 1976. The game-changing blue-liner played 20 games with Chicago in 1976-77 but simply wasn’t the same player he was in Boston. His knees were shot and after sitting out the 1977-78 campaign he returned for six games in 1978-79 before stepping away from the game.
Hockey fans will also bring up Ray Bourque as a fellow Bruins great who ended his career wearing an unfamiliar sweater. However, Bourque’s tenure in Colorado was much different than Orr’s in Chicago. Bourque’s lasting image as an NHLer is him hoisting the Cup with the Avalanche following a season in which he finished second in Norris voting. Colorado even retired Bourque’s No. 77 jersey, so all things considered Bourque in Avalanche accoutrements doesn’t feel out of place.
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