Many of the biggest and most vocal proponents of chiropractors are athletes, and a remarkable number of these players happen to be amongst the greatest of all time. But did chiropractic enable the greatest player of all time in his sport to play for decades?
Holder of an NFL record for practically any part of the sport there are numbers for, Tom Brady has played more and won more than any other player at his position in the history of the league, and part of the secret to his success is a legendary longevity that he credits with his use of chiropractic care.
He is not the first NFL player to thank chiropractic, however. Joe Montana, another “greatest of all time” candidate who plays the same position as Mr Brady, was amongst the first to place a lot of the credit for his success with effective physical therapy.
The reason for this is that, even compared to other sports such as rugby, association football and athletics, American football involves a lot of impacts and awkward landings, with nearly every few seconds seeing a player get slammed to the ground.
The effects of this are seen in the seeming inevitability of injuries to the arms, legs, back and neck, something that chiropractic aims to avoid with pre-game adjustments that help to avoid the risk of injury by encouraging flexibility and mobility.
Mr Brady himself claims he feels “three inches taller” after a session at the clinic and much like Mr Montana, credits chiropractic with his ability to play the game for as long as he did.
After his surprising debut in 2001 where he took his New England Patriots to victory at the Super Bowl, Mr Brady would win the Lombardi Trophy six more times. Five with the Patriots and one more at the age of 43, making him by far the oldest quarterback to win the big game.
He then went on to play two more seasons after that, finally retiring at the age of 45, something that surely would have been impossible without physical therapy that kept him flexible and resilient enough to keep taking shots.
