Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski Connect For 93rd TD, Move Past Steve Young-Jerry Rice Duo For Second-Most In NFL History
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Tom Brady-Rob Gronkowski connection is now in its second decade of operation. It still works just fine.
The pair of Hall of Famers connected for a touchdown in the third quarter of Monday night's game between the Buccaneers and Giants. The score gave Tampa Bay its first lead of the game, and it also made some history.
With the touchdown, the duo of Brady and Gronkowski moved into second place all time for most touchdown connections between a quarterback and a pass catcher. The score broke a tie with Steve Young and Jerry Rice, who connected for 92 touchdowns in San Francisco from 1987-99.
Brady and Gronkowski -- who first teamed up in 2010 with the Patriots and reunited this year in Tampa -- will have to work several more years together if they hope to catch Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, who own the all-time connection record at 114.
Monday's touchdown was the third of the season for Gronkowski, who came out of retirement and worked a trade to play with Brady, after the quarterback signed with Tampa Bay as a free agent. The other 90 touchdown connections, of course, came when the two did their work in Foxboro. Twelve of those touchdowns came in the postseason.
Later in the second half, Brady threw his second touchdown of the night, this one to Mike Evans. With that score, Brady passed Drew Brees for the most touchdown passes of all time. The two future Hall of Famers figure to pass that record back and forth for the duration of the season.
