TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Brady led the Bucs to a Super Bowl 55 victory at age 43 during a pandemic, becoming the first quarterback to win a title in his team’s home stadium.

But the legend only grows from there.

Brady did it while playing with a partially torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee that he sustained in his final season with the Patriots.

The injury gradually worsened during his first year with the Bucs and he finally had surgery to repair the MCL in late February after winning his seventh Super Bowl ring.

Brady has declined to give specifics about his knee surgery, only confirming that it was “pretty serious.”

The Super Bowl MVP had acknowledged that the injury occurred prior to taking his first snap with the Bucs in training camp. Now we know it was a lot more than an arthroscopic procedure. Brady tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the same knee during Week 1 of the 2008 season.

The MCL is a band of tissue that runs along the inner edge of the knee. It helps to connect the shin and thigh bones to keep the knee stable and working properly during movement.

Brady missed about one practice each week the final few months of the 2020 season.