46-year-old Tom Brady beats his 40-yard dash time from 2000 NFL combine

BOSTON -- In terms of sore spots or sensitive subjects, Tom Brady doesn't have too many. There is one, though, that hung over him for his entire career: His appearance at the 2000 NFL scouting combine.

The image of a shirtless Brady standing in his gym shorts has become iconic in a way. Still, Brady made a personal plea to Elon Musk to have the image permanently banned from Twitter back in 2022.

That comment may have been tongue-in-cheek, but there's definitely some truth to Brady's shame, as the footage of an awkward-looking quarterback from that combine has always been used to show that the quarterback didn't enter the league as a physical specimen in any way.

Now in retirement, though, Brady has sought out some redemption.

The 46-year-old -- for some promotion for the company Nobull, which merged with Brady's former TB12 business -- decided to head out onto a football field and beat his 40-yard dash time of 5.28 seconds from the 2000 combine.

And while the testing wasn't exactly as precise as the combine these days, Brady did beat the mark. One stopwatch had him at 5.18 seconds, while another had him down to 5.12 seconds.

Nobull majority owner Mike Repole reacted with Brady over the phone, saying, "If you did that 25 years ago, you'd get drafted in the third round."

Fortunately for the Patriots, that didn't happen, as Brady's unimpressive performance at the combine contributed to his availability late in the sixth round. The rest is, of course, history.

Yet Brady being Brady, he wasn't quite satisfied with being a 46-year-old running faster than his 22-year-old self.

"That was fun," he said. "Next year, it's gonna be faster."

And you know ... he's probably not kidding.