Tom Brady believes he can play until he’s 45. If his performance as a 40-year-old is any indication, that won’t be a problem.

Brady won the 2018 NFL MVP Award Saturday night, making him the oldest player to ever take home MVP honors in any of the four major sports. The previous record had been held by Barry Bonds, who won his last award at 40 years, three months, and 22 days. Brady, at the time of the award, was a shade under 40 years and six months old.

While both Bonds and Brady won the award at 40 years of age, Brady is the only to have played the entire season at age 40 and win the award.

Here’s how the vote turnout looked for Brady:

A fitting MVP vote count:

Tom Brady, New England 40

Todd Gurley, Los Angeles Rams 8

Carson Wentz, Philadelphia 2 — Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 4, 2018

NFL MVPs typically haven’t done so hot in the Super Bowl:

The last NFL MVP to win the Super Bowl in the same season was Kurt Warner in 1999.



Last 8 players to win MVP and play in Super Bowl all lost. — Evan Kaplan (@EpKap) February 4, 2018

It’s the third time he’s been named the league’s regular season MVP, though he’s taken home Super Bowl MVP honors four times in a surefire Hall of Fame career. He guided the Patriots to a 13-3 record, the AFC East title, and their eighth Super Bowl appearance with Brady at the helm.

All the while, he posted his traditionally high-level numbers. His 4,577 passing yards led the league. He ranked among the top five quarterbacks in touchdown passes, yards per pass, and QB rating.

But Brady won the 2018 MVP partly due to attrition

The Patriot quarterback was a deserving honoree, as his numbers and his team’s success show. However, his 2017 campaign doesn’t quite carry the same cache as his 2007 and 2010 MVP seasons, where he led the league in multiple categories for teams that went a combined 30-2 in the regular season.

He faced some robust competition early in the year. Carson Wentz’ sophomore campaign featured 33 touchdown passes in an 11-2 start with the Eagles, but a torn ACL ended his hopes of taking the league’s top individual honor. Aaron Rodgers led the league in touchdown passes through five weeks, but a broken collarbone sunk his season — and the Packers’, too.

Alex Smith put his name into consideration as the game’s top quarterback during the Chiefs’ 5-0 start, but old habits returned in a bad way as Kansas City sputtered to a 6-6 record before rallying to finish the season with a good, but not great, campaign. Todd Gurley’s rebound 2017 pushed the Rams to an NFC West title, but his stellar season failed to post the eye-popping kind of numbers a running back needs to usurp a quarterback at the top of the NFL food chain.

That left Brady to collect more hardware for his mantel. The veteran quarterback proved he can still perform at a high level despite leaving his 30s behind in 2017. He’ll have a chance to break his own longevity record next fall with another stellar season.