The 2022 N.F.L. season is shaping up to be an extinction-level event for several once-mighty dinosaur quarterbacks.
Each week, Tom Brady looks less and less like a champion for the ages and more like a character who skipped from the middle of “Hamlet” straight to the end of “King Lear.” His Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 3-4 and coming off back-to-back losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Carolina Panthers, teams with a combined 4-10 record, by a combined score of 41-21.
In his 23rd season, Brady has scattered incomplete passes and labored to his feet after sacks and knockdowns; his patented fourth-quarter comeback attempts fizzle, if they arrive at all.