Shortly after Tom Brady’s retirement, well second (and maybe final?) retirement this past week, I saw a graphic being shared on Facebook with a list of the QBs who have retired in the last few years.

On it were of course Brady, Peyton Manning, Big Ben, Drew Brees, Eli Manning and Philip Rivers.

It donned on me seeing that graphic that the era of football that I grew up watching, the era that made me a fan, is over.

Brady, love him or hate him, will go down as the best to ever do it. I actually grew to like him after his move to the Bucs after years of despising him with the Pats.

Peyton and Eli both supplied great moments in my football fandom. I watched Eli beat Brady in the Super Bowl twice with my late uncle, and Peyton’s last super bowl win with a friend from high school, which seems like forever ago now. Great memories.

I was always a fan of Drew Brees and what he and the Saints meant to New Orleans after Katrina, and Rivers always seemed to lose to the Steelers, so I appreciate that. Ha!

And, of course, Ben, I wrote about after his final home game last year.

I watched them all play with both my late great grandfather and grandfather.

It’s crazy to think that era of quarterbacks, guys I would look forward to Sunday all week to watch play, could be completely over pending what Aaron Rodgers decides.

Now, the next wave of QBs certainly is promising. Heck the current Super Bowl matchup next week of Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts should be a great one.

The Bengals Ohio boy Joe Burrow is fun to watch, as is the Bills Josh Allen.

It may be biased of me, but I also have high hopes for mt Steelers’ Kenny Pickett after his strong second half to his rookie season.

I think Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud is going to be a good one wherever he ends up in the draft, too.

Hopefully this new cast of QBs can be to a new generation of football fans what the now retired guys were to me and my generation, and what guys like Terry Bradshaw were to my pap, and Joe Montana was to my mom and Troy Aikman to my dad etc.

If it is another great era of QBs, young fans enjoy it. Trust me, it’ll be over before you know it.