Tom Brady, the best QB in NFL history and one of the greatest athletes to ever live, officially retired on Tuesday after 22 seasons.

Why it matters: Brady, the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft, is 21st century sports. If there was a Mount Rushmore of North American athletes, his face would almost certainly on it (more on this later).

• "[F]ootball is an 'all-in' proposition — if a 100% competitive commitment isn't there, you won't succeed," Brady wrote in a statement that notably didn't mention the Patriots.
• "This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore. ... Now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention."

By the numbers: Brady retires as a seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time NFL MVP and 15-time Pro Bowler. No player has more pass yards (85,520), pass TD (624) or wins (243).

• He won more Super Bowls (7) than any team has won in its existence (6) and appeared in twice as many Super Bowls (10) as any other QB.
• Brady's 35 playoff wins are more than second-place Joe Montana (16) and third-place Peyton Manning (14), combined, and only two teams have more: the Patriots (37) and Steelers (36).
• In Brady's 20 seasons as a full-time starter, he had more Super Bowl-winning seasons (7) than seasons that ended before the conference championship round (6).
• Since turning 40, he won more games (70) and threw for more yards (26,893) than any QB taken in the 2000 draft did in their careers.
• The obligatory Jets stat: Brady lost 73 regular-season games in his entire career. In the last seven years alone, the Jets have lost 76.

The big picture: Brady was so consistently good for so long that one could argue he had three Hall of Fame careers in one.

• The underdog (2000–06): Three Super Bowls, two Super Bowl MVPs, three Pro Bowls. ... His regular-season numbers were pedestrian, but he went 12-2 in the playoffs and the Patriots dynasty was born.
• The GOAT (2007–13): Two NFL MVPs, six Pro Bowls, two First-Team All-Pros ... This is when Brady began to creep into the GOAT debate. Insane numbers, mixed with crushing playoff losses.
• The Immortal (2014–20): Four Super Bowls, three Super Bowl MVPs, one NFL MVP, five Pro Bowls, one First-Team All-Pro ... His best seven-year stretch — further evidence that he is aging backwards.

What they're saying: Brady has been part of America's fabric since the turn of the century, gracing 25 Sports Illustrated covers, starring in countless commercials and becoming an icon for every generation. Naturally, sportswriters had some words about the man...

• Sally Jenkins, WashPost: "Brady proved that any kid with perfectly ordinary athletic prospects, the middle-of-the-packer who doesn't come with some preloaded or far-fetched anatomical gift, can construct greatness. What made him great was an inner curiosity, an urge to fill in his blanks and see what might happen with enough study and sweat."
• Will Leitch, GQ: "Someday, your grandchildren ... will ask you what it was like to watch Tom Brady play. That you lived in the time of Brady ... will seem remarkable to them, in the same way it seemed remarkable to me that my grandfather was old enough to grow up watching Babe Ruth. Brady did things in the NFL, like Ruth, that will not seem possible to future generations. The kids will want to know."
• Scott Stossel, The Atlantic: "Brady's ability to somehow defy, if not reverse, the normal processes of aging ... provides the illusion that decay and death can maybe be deferred a little longer. Of course, his agelessness also makes me hate him a little, too, for the same reasons the rest of his seemingly perfect life does; I can only imagine the hatred that, say, Jets fans must feel for him."

The final act: The last thing Brady did was erase a 27-3 deficit in the final 20 minutes of a playoff game ... after leading the NFL in passing yards (5,316), completions (NFL-record 485) and TD (43) ... at age 44.

"Tom Brady really said 'I'll retire when I suck' and then was like 'f--k this it's taking too long.'"

Go deeper:

• Read: Brady's most memorable moment against all 32 teams (ESPN)
• 🎥 Watch: The night a GOAT and a dynasty were born (YouTube)

The Washington Football Team is now the Washington Commanders. Go Commies!

Of note: The Commanders moniker was the second-most popular among NFL fans in a recent Morning Consult poll, trailing only the Defenders.

Announcement video.

In the lead-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics (Feb. 4–20), we're profiling 10 members of Team USA.

• Name: Chloe Kim
• Sport: Snowboarding
• Age: 21
• Hometown: Torrance, California
• Instagram: @chloekim

The Olympian: When then-17-year-old Kim became the youngest woman ever to win Olympic snowboarding gold in 2018, it was hardly a surprise. If anything, it was long overdue because she was simply too young to compete at the 2014 Games.

• She entered her first competition at age six, won junior nationals at eight and was a five-time X Games medalist by 16. The accolades keep coming, with four more golds at the World Championships and X Games since Pyeongchang.
• But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Kim's sudden fame and the racism she faced as a Korean American put her in a "dark place," she told Time. She took nearly two years off and attended Princeton before returning to snowboarding last January.

The event: Kim's Olympic debut in the halfpipe was transcendent, as she became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s. Now, "she's doing tricks that some of the men don't even want to," said 2018 bronze medalist Arielle Gold.

• "She is the greatest women's snowboarder of all time, by far," added Gold, her former USA teammate.
• What to watch: Kim plans to unveil three new tricks in Beijing, but won't provide details beyond that. "They're an upgrade ... I'm going to go off."

ICYMI: Emily Sweeney (luge); John Shuster (curling); Jessie Diggins (cross-country skiing); Alex Ferreira (freestyle skiing); Elana Meyers Taylor (bobsled); Shaun White (snowboarding); Erin Jackson (speed skating)

🏈 Flores lawsuit: Brian Flores, who was fired last month as head coach of the Dolphins, has sued the NFL and each of its franchises for racial discrimination. We'll go deeper tomorrow.

🏀 Fowles' last ride: WNBA great Sylvia Fowles has signed a deal to return to the Lynx for what will be her 15th and final season.

🏈 Caleb to USC: Star QB Caleb Williams is transferring from Oklahoma to USC, where he'll be reunited with head coach Lincoln Riley. And thus ends the offseason's biggest mystery.

🥇 Good read: To skate for the Dutch, you first must beat the matrix (Kevin Draper, NYT)

"Hardly anybody understands how some decisions are reached at the Olympisch Kwalificatietoernooi, an always volatile mix of perhaps the most competitive Olympic qualifying event in the world and a byzantine selection procedure known as the matrix."

The NBA's Eastern Conference has a massive logjam at the top of the standings as February gets underway.

State of play: Nine of the East's 15 teams are above .500, and the 12th-place Wizards are just nine games behind the first-place Bulls.

1. Bulls: 32-18
2. 76ers: 31-19 (1 GB)
3. Heat: 32-20 (1 GB)
4. Cavaliers: 31-20 (1.5 GB)
5. Bucks: 32-21 (1.5 GB)
6. Nets: 29-21 (3 GB)
7. Hornets: 28-23 (4.5 GB)
8. Raptors: 26-23 (5.5 GB)
9. Celtics: 27-25 (6 GB)
10. Hawks: 24-26 (8 GB)
11. Knicks: 24-27 (8.5 GB)
12. Wizards: 23-27 (9 GB)
13. Pacers: 19-33 (14 GB)
14. Pistons: 12-38 (20 GB)
15. Magic: 11-41 (22 GB)

As the semifinals kick off at the Africa Cup of Nations, both matches feature countries in the midst of dramatic upheaval, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes.

• Today: Burkina Faso vs. Senegal (2pm, beIN Sports)
• Tomorrow: Egypt vs. Cameroon (2pm, beIN Sports)

The backdrop: Cameroon, hosting for the first time since 1972, has been embroiled in a civil war since 2017 that has left 4,000 dead and a million homeless. Days before AFCON began, separatists detonated an IED.

• More tragedy struck last week when eight people died in a crush at the same stadium that will host tomorrow's semifinal and Sunday's final in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé.
• Burkina Faso is ruled by a different government now than it was when AFCON began. Soldiers staged a military coup in January, the third in west Africa in the past eight months (Guinea, Mali).

Between the lines: Amid the chaos, the games have been excellent, as Africa continues its climb up soccer's global ranks 12 years after South Africa became the first African nation to host the World Cup.

• The inaugural AFCON was in 1957 with just three teams. This year's tournament has 24 teams and could attract over a billion viewers.
• African players are no longer a rarity in Europe's top leagues, and Egypt's Mo Salah — one of the stars of this year's event — is among the best players in the world.

Go deeper: Semifinals preview (Eurosport)

BEIJING — The Olympics are officially underway, with mixed doubles curling kicking off a full 48 hours before the opening ceremony.

• Go deeper: Event schedule (Olympics)

LUBBOCK, Texas — No. 14 Texas Tech beat No. 23 Texas, 77-64, in Chris Beard's return to Lubbock after leaving for their in-state rivals (and his alma mater) this offseason.

• 🎥 Watch: Rowdy crowd greets Beard (Twitter)

NEW YORK — NHL goals leader Chris Kreider (33 goals) scored twice on the power play to lift the Rangers past the Panthers, 5-2, in a battle of two of the league's best teams.

• Go deeper: NHL power rankings (ESPN)

The USMNT faces Honduras tonight in frigid St. Paul (-11 wind chill) for its last World Cup qualifier until March (7:30pm ET, FS1).

• Coming off a 2-0 loss at Canada, tonight is an opportunity for the U.S. to get back on track before the final qualifying window in March.
• Where it stands: Canada (22 pts) is in first place with four games left, followed by the U.S. (18), Mexico (18), Panama (17), Costa Rica (13), El Salvador (9), Jamaica (7) and Honduras (3).

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Grizzlies at Knicks (7:30pm, ESPN); Nuggets at Jazz (10pm, ESPN)
• 🏒 NHL: Oilers at Capitals (7pm, TNT); Wild at Blackhawks (9:30pm, TNT)
• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 11 Wisconsin at No. 18 Illinois (9pm, BTN); No. 12 Villanova at No. 24 Marquette (10pm, FS1)
• ⚾️ Caribbean Series: Both semifinals are today on ESPN Deportes ... Colombia vs. Venezuela (2pm); Dominican Republic vs. Mexico (7pm)

Tom Brady orchestrated 14 game-winning playoff drives, more than twice as many as any other QB.

• Question: Who's second with six?
• Hint: Their careers didn't overlap.

Answer at the bottom.

Tom Brady's retirement got us thinking about his standing among the all-time greats. Is he on your Mount Rushmore?

Make your picks: Select four names from this list for your Mount Rushmore of North American athletes. We'll share the results tomorrow.