The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, 44, won seven Super Bowls in an astonishing career spanning 22 seasons.
Brady won six titles with the New England Patriots before his final triumph with the Buccaneers last year.
The five-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player is retiring after deciding he could no longer make the "competitive commitment" to continue.
His final game in the NFL was a 30-27 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the play-offs, when his heroics narrowly failed to pull off a sensational comeback from 27-3 down.
