Aaron Rodgers among aging QBs who struggled in Week 1: Examining who Father Time has caught up to

As Tom Brady kept rolling to begin 2021, his counterparts faltered

It's been said before, time and time again, that football is a young man's game. And for every Tom Brady, one could list hundreds of prominent quarterbacks whose play steadily waned, if not outright fell apart, as they approached age 40.

Father Time. Sickle. Undefeated. (Except for TB 12.)

We've seen it in recent years with numerous quarterbacks who entered the league in the early-to-mid 2000s: Eli Manning slip sliding away, and the Giants getting it right the first time when they benched him; Peyton Manning going from setting records to losing his job to Brock Osweiler; Drew Brees no longer pushing the ball downfield; Philip Rivers opting to coach high school ball rather than see how tepid a market formed for his services; and Joe Flacco enduring injury-after-injury and holding on as a backup.