Much has been made about the longevity of Tom Brady’s career. Certainly, there are few souls in the nation unaware of the 44-year-old quarterback’s exploits. But with the legendary passer calling it a career after 22 years, we’re left to wonder what the NFL will look like without the player who has been its public face for the last two-plus decades.
It’s especially hard for to imagine a league without Brady in it.
It was a very different world the last time Brady wasn’t playing professional football, and in the wake of his impending retirement, let’s travel back in time to see just how different things were the day before he was drafted.
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The No. 1 movie at the box office is “Rules of Engagement”
The military drama stars Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.
The top song on the Billboard 100 is Santana’s “Maria Maria”
It was the second Santana song to top the charts in 2000, following the legendary “Smooth” featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20.
Rotten Tomatoes just launched its full-time site
The now-popular film review website began in 1998 as a side-project, but it officially launched as a full-time site on April 1.
AOL Instant Messenger is in its prime
The spiritual precursor to iMessage launched in 1997, but by April 2000, it was just entering its heyday. AOL also merged with Time Warner in February.
Google is still in its infancy
The now-ubiquitous search engine was founded in 1996, but it wouldn’t become the default search engine for Yahoo!, springboarding its popularity, until June.
Mark Zuckerberg is still in high school
The future Harvard dropout would go on to develop a website called Facebook — perhaps you’ve heard of it.
Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are still together
“The All-New Mickey Mouse Club” co-stars dated from 1999 until 2002.
The PlayStation 2 has just been released in Japan
North American gamers didn’t get the console until October, but it went on sale in March for the Japanese market and would later sell more than 150 million units.
What’s a Nokia?
The tech company had been developing cell phones for a while at this point, but the iconic “3310” model, which would be the subject of memes for decades to come, didn’t release until Sept. 1.
Michigan State just defeated Florida to win the NCAA Tournament
Playing in that game on the losing side were future NBA stars Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem, with the latter still playing in the league for the Miami Heat.
A 14-year-old Michael Phelps is preparing for his first Olympics
Phelps made his Team USA debut in Sydney the following September, though he wouldn’t win his first medal until the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Chad Pennington became the first quarterback taken in the 2000 NFL draft
On the eve of Brady’s selection, Pennington became the first of six quarterbacks picked ahead of him in the draft.
