There is no disputing Tom Brady's legacy as he .He holds all the major career pa sing records. He has more rings than can fit on one hand, and more than any other NFL franchise, let alone player. In his 22 seasons as an NFL quarterback, he never had a losing record. His postseason stats alone would represent a solid regular-season career for some NFL quarterbacks.His wildly succe sful career started as the ultimate underdog story, a late draft pick that had to overtake a succe sful starter under center in order to kick off his NFL career.As Brady heads into retirement, Sporting News takes a look back at his NFL career, where it started, the numerous trips to the Super Bowl and how it ended.MORE: Tom Brady career timeline Michigan careerBrady made the decision to go to Michigan instead of local offers like Cal-Berkeley, UCLA and USC, but he decided to play for the Wolverines to leave the southern California area in which he grew up. It took him some time before coach Lloyd Carr named him the starter with Brady sitting deep on the depth chart in his first season. His first pa s in college was intercepted, and he remained a backup for all of his first two seasons at Michigan. He competed with top recruit Drew Henson for the starting job in 1998, but ultimately won the job.He finished his first Los Angeles Rams Jersey year as the starter with 2,427 pa sing yards with 14 touchdown pa ses and 10 interceptions, and posted similar numbers in his final season, with 2,217 pa sing yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. That final year, he led the team to a comeback win against rival Ohio State to send the Wolverines to the Orange Bowl. He won both the Citrus Bowl in 1999 and the Orange Bowl in 2000.Unimpre sive combineBrady's numbers didn't exactly light up the charts, even if he had impre sed scouts with his ability to seemingly play better down the stretch and lead his teams on improbable comebacks. He wasn't any more impre sive at the 2000 NFL Combine. He ran a 5.28 40, managed a 24.5 vertical, 99 broad jump, 7.20 three-cone and 4.38 shuttle, all of which remain to this day rank among the worst by quarterbacks in combine history, .MORE: Low draft pickThe highs on Brady came from intangibles: his leadership, his ability to read defenses, his work ethic. The lows on Brady were pretty much everything else. He was slow, lacked a power arm, didn't light up college defenses and certainly didn't impre s at the combine. Though some other teams late in the draft thought of taking a chance on him, Patriots coach Bill Belichick was high on the intangibles and was surprised to Deacon Jones Jersey see him available late in the draft. He took the underwhelming Michigan quarterback in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft with the 199th overall pick.He was the seventh quarterback taken in the draft. Chad Pennington was taken 18th overall by the Jets. Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger and Spergon Wynn were taken between the third and sixth rounds. Pennington and Bulger each pa sed for at least 15,000 yards. None of the other quarterbacks had more than 5,000. Brady has more pa sing yards, pa sing touchdowns and games started than the rest of that quarterback cla s combined. Redman was the most recent quarterback from that cla s to play in the NFL, when he appeared in his final season in 2011.Rookie seasonBrady had Merlin Olsen Jersey begun the season behind John Friesz and Michael Bishop, but was kept on the roster in a rare move to keep four quarterbacks on the roster. Brady was kept on the bench for nearly all of his rookie season in 2000 as the Patriots continued to ride with their Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Brady appeared in only game in that season, completing one pa s in three attempts for six yards in a 34-9 blowout to the Lions. That pa s was completed to tight end Rod Rutledge, who finished the season with a career-best 15 receptions for 103 yards and a touchdown. Bledsoe's injuryBrady remained on the bench behind Bledsoe to open the 2001 season, but in the team's second game of the season, Bledsoe was hit by Jets' linebacker Mo Lewis, and had to be taken out of the game after one more series. Brady played the final series of the game, completing 5-of-10 pa ses for 46 yards in a 10-3 lo s to New York.Brady took the reins of the starting quarterback position from there, making his first start against Peyton Manning and the Colts in New England on Sept. 30, 2001. The second-year quarterback didn't post eye-popping numbers, but his team came away with a 44-13 rout of Indianapolis. Brady completed 13-of-23 pa ses for 168 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Brady wouldn't throw his first touchdown pa s until Oct. 14, 2001, when he pa sed for a pair of touchdowns with a then-career-high 364 pa sing yards. Brady went on to lead the Patriots to an 11-5 finish despite the 0-2 start. He had 2,843 pa sing yards with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in his first season as the starter.Tuck ruleThough it was filled with succe s, Brady's career was also spotted with controversial moments. The first notable case of that happening came in his first playoff game. Brady appeared to lose a fumble in the fourth quarter against the Raiders that was recovered by Charles Woodson. However, officials gave the ball back to the Cam Akers Jersey Patriots on the "tuck rule," which states that if a quarterback begins a throwing motion, even if they begin to bring the ball back to their body and lose po se sion, it is ruled an incomplete pa s instead of a fumble. New England went on to kick a game-tying field goal on that drive with 32 seconds left in the game, and Oakland opted to go to overtime and took a knee to end regulation.The Patriots won the coin to s, drove down the field and Adam Vinatieri kicked a walk-off field goal to clinch Brady's first playoff win. The tuck rule was eliminated in 2013 and overtime rules were changed in 2010 to give teams a chance to respond to a field goal on the opening drive of overtime.MORE: First Super BowlMuch like how Brady took over for Bledsoe due to injury, Lance Dunbar Jersey so too did Bledsoe replace Brady in the playoff run. A knee injury knocked Brady out of the AFC championship game against the Steelers in the second quarter and the Patriots leading 7-3. Bledsoe led the team to another score on the drive and helped the team win the game 24-17. But it was Brady who was named the starter in Super Bowl 36 against the Rams, who were known then still as the "Greatest Show on Turf."With heavyweight names like Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Orlando Pace and Isaac Bruce, St. Louis was heavily favored to win the Super Bowl. The Patriots got off to a 17-3 lead, but Warner helped the Rams to tie the game with 1:30 left in regulation. Instead of playing for overtime, Brady completed 5-of-8 pa ses to drive the Patriots down the field 53 yards down the field to set Vinatieri up for the game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired to seal the first Super Bowl ring