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21 and Over part 1 FULL FREE WATCH – Video


21 and Over part 1 FULL FREE WATCH
For more go to: redir.ec Skylar Astin ("Pitch Perfect"), Miles Teller ("Footloose") and Justin Chon ("Twilight") star in "21 and Over," a hilarious movie that showcases a rite of passage gone horribly wrong. Straight-A college student Jeff Chang has always done what #39;s expected of him. But when his two best friends Casey and Miller surprise him with a visit for his 21st birthday, he decides to do the unexpected for a change, even though his critical medical school interview is early the next morning. What was supposed to be one beer becomes one night of chaos, over indulgence and utter debauchery in this outrageous comedy. 21 and over, comedy, miles teller, justin chon, skylar astin, sarah wright, watch, full length, full, movie, part 1, of, part1, exclusive, leaked, clips, entire, film, scenes, HD, HQ, high quality, definition, news, release, online, free, feature, complete, footage, stream, 2012, trailer, 3D, 3-D, official, blockbuster, sequel, news, reviews, latest, 2011, 2013From:IdaKaulViews:0 0ratingsTime:14:05More inEntertainment

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21 and Over part 1 FULL FREE WATCH - Video

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With bitcoin ETF decision imminent, industry watchers debate if SEC will delay – Blockworks

Those closely following the spot bitcoin ETF saga probably already know Bloomberg Intelligence analysts put the chances of approval in the coming week at 90%.

But not all see it that way.

Markus Thielen, head of research for crypto platform Matrixport, said Tuesday he believes all such applications fall short of a critical requirement adding that US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler still sees this industry in need of more stringent compliance.

Read more: SEC delaying spot bitcoin ETFs not impossible, but unlikely: Balchunas

As the SECs Jan. 10 deadline to rule on a proposal by Ark Invest and 21Shares approaches, other industry watchers continue to debate these funds fate.

Stefan Rust, CEO data provider Truflation, said he agrees Gensler has not given any indication he is ready to give a bitcoin ETF the green light.

Governments and regulators havent yet identified how they can exert control over cryptocurrencies, Rust argued in a statement. No doubt they are looking for more time and choke points to inhibit access to cryptocurrencies from a decentralized system.

Chase White and Joe Flynn, analysts at Compass Point Research & Trading, said in a Dec. 15 note that recent meetings between fund issuers and the SEC support the firms base case of January spot bitcoin ETF approval. The regulator could hold off though, they added.

We think theres a chance the SEC isnt quite ready to approve ETFs in early [January] and will ask Ark Invest [and] 21Sharesto refile the application to give the SEC more time, rather than reject it outright, White and Flynn wrote.

But Scott Johnsson, general partner at Van Buren Capital, said in a series of X posts Wednesday he is confident approval will come between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10.

Read more: Industry watchers pin down possible bitcoin ETF approval dates

He added: Theres no more bullets in the SECs gun.

The SECs August court loss to Grayscale Investments put more pressure on the regulator to approve spot bitcoin ETFs, industry watchers and executives have argued. Judges in the case said the regulators decision to deny the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to an ETF but approve bitcoin futures ETFs was arbitrary and capricious.

Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, called several arguments in the Matrixport report nonsensical in an X post, citing Grayscales court win.Galaxy has proposed a spot bitcoin ETF with partner Invesco.

Matrixport co-founder Jihan Wu defended Thielens report, saying he believes spot bitcoin ETF approval at some point is inevitable. Thielen did not return a request for comment.

Lucas Kiely, chief investment officer of digital wealth platform Yield App, called bitcoins Wednesday price dip a buying opportunity.

Should the SEC once again reject bitcoin ETFs, it would this time be blocking attempts from not just crypto-focused firms, but from fund giants such as BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco and Franklin Templeton.

BlackRock, which manages roughly $9 trillion in assets, has only ever had one ETF proposal rejected by the SEC a so-called non-transparent fund structure in 2014.

There is too much pressure and expectation from the worlds biggest asset managers for Gary Gensler and the rest of the approval committee to keep kicking the can down the road, Kiely said.

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How is alcohol-free beer made? | Everyday chemistry | RSC Education – Education in Chemistry

Whether its mocktails, alcohol-free beer or low-alcohol wines and spirits, theres no question that keeping people hangover-free is big business.

In the UK, the no- and low-alcohol beer market was worthmore than 350 million in 2021, and in China its a multibillion-pound industry. And although theres no such thing as truly no-alcohol beer alcohol-free labelled beers can contain up to 0.5% alcohol by volume(ABV) removing most of the booze is down to some basic chemistry.

An alcohol molecule has at least one hydroxyl (OH) functional group bound to a carbon atom. This means even something as complicated as cholesterol is still, technically, an alcohol. But, the drinks labels dont describe the chemical definition instead, they mean ethanol (CH3CH2OH).

Ethanol isnt just for drinking: it makes a terrific fuel and is an important industrial precursor to make other molecules too. It has a lot of different effects on the body far too many to go into here but the important part comes when you consume more than your liver can metabolise, and it interferes with neurotransmission in the brain. The result is that you get drunk. However, low-alcohol beer has so little alcohol that your body can usually deal with it easily, keeping you hangover-free.

Brewers follow the same process used for thousands of years to make beer. First, they mash malted barley in hot water. Then, they extract sugars in a liquid known as wort, boil it with hops and ferment the liquid. The fermentation process involves yeast a fungus that feeds on the sugars to produce ethanol, carbon dioxide and by-products that add flavour.

No yeast, no fungus creating ethanol, no flavour

There are multiple tactics a brewer can employ to ban the booze. One is to sidestep the fermentation process altogether by not adding yeast to the wort: no yeast, no fungus creating ethanol, but also no flavour. Unless you use additives to spice up the flavour, you get a rubbish-tasting beer. Another option is equally simple: just dilute your beer. By adding water, you reduce the ABV, but also make weak beer.

This leaves the modern process of dealcoholisation: removing the alcohol after fermentation. Again, there are a range of techniques that brewers can use, but most involve either heat or a membrane-based process.

One common approach is vacuum distillation. This involves heating the beer at low pressure, which means the ethanol and water in the beer evaporate at different temperatures and separate. Brewers take the ethanol out, and reblend the remaining liquid, this time with a little carbonic acid. The downside is that they lose various flavour molecules with the alcohol. Brewers must separate the liquid once more, then reintroduce the flavours into the now (nearly) alcohol-free beer. A variation on the technique is stripping, in which water vapour or a non-reactive gas (such as nitrogen) is passed through the wort under vacuum to carry away the ethanol. You can decaffeinate coffee beans using a similar technique.

Another alternative is reverse osmosis. Rather than low pressure, the brewer uses high pressure to force the beer through a semipermeable membrane. This membrane allows water and ethanol through but leaves larger molecules (such as those that give beer its taste) behind as a concentrate. Brewers can then dilute the concentrate with fresh water to make the booze. The downside is that, although most of the flavourful stuff is in the concentrate, they lose some smaller molecules or those dissolved in the beers gases. Without care and attention, the beer loses its flavour, smell, colour and even stability meaning that your alcohol-free beer isnt as good as the real thing.

Why not watch, and share, this TikTok over a brew?

Kit Chapman

Watch, and share, this TikTok (bit.ly/47KgGCn) over a brew

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A free medical clinic opened in rural East Texas. Thousands poured in for help. – The Texas Tribune

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Juanita Franklin was driving through the East Texas town of Gun Barrel City a couple of years ago when she saw a new sign down the road from the Christian Life Center food pantry where she volunteers. It promised something she desperately needed: Healthcare Access for All!

Franklin, whose left leg is amputated below the knee and who has chronic high blood pressure and thyroid problems, is among the 18% of Texans who are trying to survive without health insurance. Thats the highest state rate in the country by far and more than double the national average. The rate is even higher nearly 30% among the 6,400 residents of Gun Barrel City.

The sign Franklin saw that day staked in front of a former office building announced an effort by two local doctors to bring relief to some of those struggling Texans.

Doug Curran and Ted Mettetal have practiced medicine for 80-plus years combined, most of it in a thriving private practice in the town of Athens, about 20 miles east of Gun Barrel City. In 2019, at an age when most physicians are ready to retire, the longtime friends set out on a new venture: opening a safety-net clinic that would treat anyone, regardless of their ability to pay.

Such clinics are urgently needed because low-income Texans have less access to health care than residents of any other state.

Eligibility for Texas Medicaid the federal-state partnership that provides health insurance to low-income Americans is so restrictive that a family of three is denied coverage if it earns more than $4,000 a year. Those who do qualify may not be able to find doctors who accept the public insurance because the states reimbursement rates are so low. A 2017 survey found that a third of Texas doctors refuse to accept new Medicaid patients.

Curran has tried for years to persuade the Republican-dominated state Legislature to address these problems. When he served as president of the Texas Medical Association from 2018 to 2019, he made it his mission to get Gov. Greg Abbotts signature on a bill to expand Medicaid coverage, a position 69% of Texans now support, according to a 2020 poll by the Episcopal Health Foundation. But Texas remains among 12 states that have refused expansion, even though the federal government would pay at least 90% of the cost.

I basically spent a year of my life trying to convince Texas legislators that they really ought to value our people more, they ought to provide better access for all our people, especially our working poor, said Curran, who leans conservative but has grown increasingly progressive. But our state has not had the wisdom of engaging that.

If Texas expanded Medicaid as envisioned in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a family of three could qualify for health care coverage if it earned as much as $31,000.

In 2019, Curran and Mettetal along with Athens native Glen Robison, who had managed their private practice began planning to close at least a sliver of the health care gap themselves.

The idea was to build a network of safety-net clinics to serve a mostly rural area east of Dallas, beginning with the clinic in Gun Barrel City. Theyd combine the clinics with a medical residency program to bring desperately needed new doctors into the region.

To launch the East Texas Community Clinic, or ETCC, they persuaded two local organizations to put up $200,000 in seed money. For long-term funding they set out to apply to a federal agency, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, which offers millions of dollars in grants and enhanced Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements to qualified clinics in poorly served areas.

In a series of interviews with Public Health Watch over the past 13 months, Curran, Mettetal and Robison laid out what has happened in the three years since they launched their grand plan.

Much of what they had envisioned has gone as expected. The need for the clinics is certainly there. If anything, its greater than they had imagined. And their residency program, a collaboration with the University of Texas Health Science Center in Tyler, has been even more successful than they had hoped.

Where they went wrong, Curran said, was in underestimating how hard it would be to get a good thing done.

They had hoped to receive the federal funding relatively quickly by the end of 2021 because to them the health care needs in Texas seemed so obvious and urgent. But the bureaucracy has moved at a glacial pace.

I thought, were gonna do this thing and everyone will recognize the need and say lets absolutely help you, but thats not what happened, Curran said.

To calm his frustrations, Curran, who is 73, likes to reflect on the story of Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer who led the first successful trek to the South Pole. Amundsen succeeded because he persisted in pushing forward 20 miles each day, Curran points out, no matter how harsh the conditions.

Thats kind of how weve done this, he said.

* * *

The Gun Barrel City clinic opened at 8 a.m. on May 20, 2020. As Curran waited for the first patients to arrive, he wondered for a moment what he had gotten himself into.

Here I am, 70 years old, starting a new adventure, he said. You kind of ask yourself, what in Gods name am I doing?

His friend Mettetal was 69. And Robison, then 45, had left a steady job and taken a pay cut to join them. The plan may have seemed crazily ambitious to an outsider, but the three men had seen firsthand the consequences of people having to forgo care because they couldnt afford it. They felt compelled to help.

Retirement didnt suit the doctors, anyway. They relished the joys and pace of small-town medicine: delivering a baby in the morning, stitching up a wound in the afternoon, making a house call after work.

When youre used to going 90 miles an hour, you kind of go stir crazy, Mettetal said.

Robison had the technical skills to run day-to-day operations and navigate the clinic toward steady, long-term funding. The doctors had state and local connections that could help them patch together start-up funds and resources.

A group of physicians from their former private practice in Athens agreed to buy the 1,900-square-foot Gun Barrel City building and lease it to them. They used an economic-development loan to gut the old accounting office and create four small exam rooms.

The Dallas-based Ginger Murchison Foundation, whose namesake had deep ties to Henderson County, where ETCC is based, and Ardent Health, a privately owned company that operates health care facilities in Texas and other states, donated the $200,000 in seed money. A third funder the East Texas Medical Center Foundation stepped up after Curran drove one of its board members, a neurosurgeon and old friend, to Waco to visit a safety-net clinic similar to what ETCC was hoping to build. So much in life, its not what you know, its who you know, Curran said.

To save money, Curran and Mettetal worked without pay, on alternate days, six days a week. The clinics doors were open 10 hours on weekdays, six hours on Saturdays.

Weve never read anything in the Bible that talks about retirement, said Mettetal, who, like Curran, grew up in rural Arkansas. The two met in medical school at the University of Arkansas, where they were both members of the Baptist Student Union. They still worship together at the First Baptist Church in Athens.

The Gun Barrel City clinic offered all the services that a private family practice would preventive screenings, chronic-disease management, immunizations, lab work, prenatal care, child wellness checkups. They used some of their precious start-up money to bring in a pediatrician, Alice Splinter, two times a week.

But there was one big difference between this clinic and their old practice. Patients paid only what they could afford, even if that meant they couldnt pay anything at all. Everyone was welcome.

Patients rolled in slowly at first, maybe a dozen a day.

But word quickly spread, and within a couple of weeks the clinic was booked. Some people traveled hours for the chance to see a doctor.

It was like instantly, we had a full schedule, we were seeing patients left and right, said Colby Estrada, the front-desk receptionist.

Estrada, 22, had always known that plenty of locals couldnt afford health care. Her own father, a rancher, doesnt have medical insurance. But she was shocked by the number of people who came through the door. It wasnt uncommon for 80 to pass through in a single day.

Many had been forced to delay treatment for so long that their ailments had become more costly and complex to treat.

One woman had postponed surgery for an abdominal tumor because she had lost her job and health insurance. Some people had been living with untreated diabetes. Others were on the cusp of kidney failure. The doctors rarely went a week without seeing someone who lived in a car.

It was mind-blowing, Estrada said. Its just amazing to see us help everybody.

Estradas father, Emilio, now comes to ETCC for care. So does her mother, Debra, who works a mile down the road at the local WIC office, which serves low-income women and children. Debra sends her WIC clients there, too.

Its so great to be able to say that right down the road theres a clinic thats sliding-scale, they dont turn anyone away, she said.

The doctors had always known Texans were suffering because they couldnt afford health care. But seeing the reality of the unmet needs was unsettling.

You delude yourself into thinking its not that bad, Curran said. Its pretty bad.

Juanita Franklin, 58, the woman who had seen the clinics sign on her way to volunteer at church, was among the clinics first patients. She and her husband, Kevin, had spent eight years trying to find consistent care for his prostate cancer.

In 2019, when Kevin became too sick to work, he finally qualified for Social Security disability benefits and Medicare. But when his new benefits were added to their household income, Franklin lost the disability assistance that had made her eligible for Texas Medicaid. Shes been uninsured ever since.

It was very scary, she said. I didnt know what else to do but pray.

Franklin now considers ETCC her medical home.

* * *

While Curran and Mettetal were treating the first patients, Robison was running the business side of the clinic. They couldnt survive on donations. They needed the steady stream of funding that the Health Resources and Services Administration offers clinics deemed federally qualified health centers, or FQHCs.

Becoming an FQHC is such a grueling process that many groups hire consultants to do the paperwork for them. To save money, Robison took on the job himself.

The clinic had to be up and running six months before he could even submit an application. During that period, it had to abide by strict FQHC rules to prove it was worthy of the special designation. It couldnt refuse care to anyone. It had to make its services easily accessible. And most of the people on its board of directors had to be patients at the clinic.

The application also required extensive data to prove that the clinics service area which stretched over three counties and included more than 47,000 low-income residents actually needed an FQHC.

Its easy to understand why theres not one of these on every corner, Mettetal said.

Robisons life took on a new rhythm: Build the clinic by day, then write about it in the application that night. He said it felt a bit like walking across a bridge as it was being built.

In January 2021, Robison submitted the 234-page application.

In just seven months, the Gun Barrel City clinic had tallied roughly 7,000 patient visits, and its benefits were already being felt in the emergency room at a nearby University of Texas outpatient facility, which often serves as a safety net for people without health coverage.

Wes Knight, chief financial officer at UT Health East Texas-Athens, said that during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the ER would have expected an upturn, uninsured visits dropped about 3 percentage points.

The UT facility saw another benefit: It could refer its uninsured ER patients to Gun Barrel City for follow-up care. Curran and Mettetal think the clinic has saved the local hospital system hundreds of thousands of dollars in uncompensated care.

Robison thought details like these would prove that the clinic deserved FQHC status. People familiar with the process told him hed probably hear back from the Health Resources and Services Administration in about 30 days although he figured it might be a bit longer, given that the nation was in the midst of another COVID-19 surge.

A month ticked by and there was still no word.

In March 2021, Robison sent the Health Resources and Services Administration an email asking about the status of the application.

He got the bad news in a form letter that same day.

Their application had been denied because it hadnt proved they were eligible for FQHC status. The letter didnt specify what needed to be fixed, but suggested that they apply again. Robison would have to start from scratch.

But they never considered giving up. Too many people already depended on ETCC to let it fail. In fact, they were getting ready to open a second clinic, this one in Athens. They needed the space to serve their growing list of patients and to train their first four family-medicine residents, who would be arriving that summer.

I figured it wouldnt be the last time wed get rejected, Curran said.

Curran and Mettetal were accustomed to the ups and downs that come with big, complicated projects. In 2010, Mettetal had founded another nonprofit, Hope Springs Water, which drills clean water wells around the world. Curran owns and helps work the ranch where he lives with his wife, Sandy, and tends more than 250 head of cattle. Both Curran and Mettetal helped start their former private practice in Athens.

They have some of their best ideas including ETCC and Hope Springs Water during their ritual, early-morning walks on a quiet road that runs past Currans ranch and the small cemetery where he has plots for himself and his wife.

But getting the clinics on stable footing was turning out to be much more difficult than they had anticipated.

Their three core donors had committed to keep them afloat until they got through the FQHC application process, but they couldnt depend on charity forever. If they didnt qualify as an official FQHC, their plan would be unsustainable in the long term.

* * *

They opened the Athens clinic in June 2021, a couple of months after their FQHC application was rejected. It sits in the center of Athens medical district, next door to the 127-bed University of Texas Health hospital.

You put it right in the middle of all the health care services so that (patients) realize they get the same care that everybody else gets, Curran said.

Ardent Health, one of their primary funders, owned the medical plaza and donated the space, which had just been vacated. It was a bit of luck kind of a God thing, if you will, Robison said.

The 7,000-square-foot facility was more than three times as big as the Gun Barrel City clinic, and furnishing it on a tight budget was no easy task. The previous practice had left behind some exam beds and desks, but other than that, the rooms were bare.

Robison searched everywhere for good deals. He bought an 18-foot conference table and a hutch for $400 from an attorney who was closing her office in Houston, nearly 200 miles away. He found 14 matching upholstered chairs for the waiting room $86 for the lot from a seller in Cedar Hill, 100 miles to the northwest. He roped the seats to the bed of his truck and drove them home.

I looked like Jed Clampett, said Robison, who keeps a sign on his desk that reminds him to keep hustlin.

Appointments filled up fast in Athens, just as they had in Gun Barrel City. By the end of 2021, the two clinics had logged about 15,000 patient visits and had become local points of pride.

Gary Reaves, who owns a plant nursery in the nearby town of Malakoff, sometimes dropped by with lunch for the front-desk staff. His home shares a fence line with Currans ranch.

Athens is a very tight-knit town, Reaves said. And a lot of it is because of people like Dr. Curran.

Reaves has been Currans patient most of his life, first at Currans private practice and now at ETCC. Ive been blessed that I can afford it, Reaves said. But theres a lot of people that cannot.

Reaves, 67, was a drummer in his high school marching band and remembers seeing a young Curran on the sidelines during football games, checking players for injuries. Years later, when Reaves dad was diagnosed with cancer, Curran cared for him until he died. When Reaves brother passed away last year, Curran stopped by to check on his grieving patient, friend and neighbor.

* * *

In many ways, ETCC was expanding exactly as Curran, Mettetal and Robison had hoped it would. In just over a year, theyd opened two clinics, hired three more doctors, seen thousands of patients and launched a successful residency program.

But financially, they often lived month to month. Whenever their bank accounts got perilously low, they went back to their donors with detailed progress reports and requests for more money.

Robison was rewriting the FQHC application with help from the Texas Association of Community Health Centers. He managed the clinics by day and worked evenings and weekends on the application. He said it was the hardest thing hed ever done, including his four years in the Air Force.

It costs $80,000 to $100,000 a month to keep the clinics running. Their three donors fund about 75% of the operation, because about 70% of their patients either have no insurance, inadequate coverage or state Medicaid coverage, which in Texas comes with very low reimbursement rates.

The state typically pays ETCC about $28 for seeing a Medicaid patient. If it provides that same service to a privately insured patient, it can receive as much as $90.

While Robison wrestled with the FQHC application, it seemed the clinics might get a one-time shot of money from the state.

The Texas Legislature was divvying up $16 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money, and one idea was to use $200 million of it to reboot an incubator program the state had once offered to clinics that were trying to become FQHCs.

Curran traveled to Austin to lobby for the provision.

[It] didnt seem excessive in light of the access-to-care issues that Texas has, he said. Not only was ETCC providing affordable care to thousands of uninsured Texans, it was also training young doctors who might end up staying in the rural region for good.

The Legislature passed the bill in October 2021, but it included $20 million, not $200 million, for the incubator program. Curran was still pleased. He assumed ETCC would be eligible for a big chunk of that money. They needed it to hire 10 more staff members, including another physician, medical assistants, a social worker and two full-time billers to negotiate with insurance companies, so they could capture as much revenue as possible.

But six months after the governor signed the spending bill, the Texas Department of State Health Services still hadnt opened the application process. An agency spokesperson told Public Health Watch in May it was in the process of hiring the program staff to begin the program.

Meanwhile, ETCC was close to running out of money again.

Glen and I just looked and were down to our last $50,000, Curran said. So, here we go again, were out of money. Its just such a pain, you know. Its just very frustrating to have to do this when you know theyre sitting on $20 million.

In a stroke of good timing, the Health Resources and Services Administration reimbursed ETCC $130,000 for uncompensated COVID-19 care the clinics had provided. It would help cover their costs for a couple of more months.

Robison had submitted their new application for FQHC status in March, and a reviewer had already been in touch, asking for a few clarifications. That was a good sign. But there was still no word about a site visit, the critical next step.

Curran and Robison went back to their donors. They got another $200,000 early this summer.

* * *

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A free medical clinic opened in rural East Texas. Thousands poured in for help. - The Texas Tribune

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Experience True Smartphone Freedom with the Best Android Phones – Futurism

While it may seem that the iPhone is ubiquitous, Apple accounts for 23 percent of the global smartphone market. That means that when it comes to mobile, Google, and its operating system Android, reigns as king. This makes finding the best Android phones a little trickier than it needs to be.

The technical prowess of Android phones is unmatched, even in affordable models. And while these Google-powered devices offer far more freedom than the iOS competition, picking out the right one can still be challenging. Weve compiled a list of the best Android phones to fit your special smartphone needs. From Samsung to OnePlus, this deep dive will illuminate what makes a great Android phone, and which premium options are worth the investment.

Best Overall: Google Pixel 6 Pro Best Premium: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Best Battery Life: Moto G Power Best Value: OnePlus 9 Best Budget: Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Best Sustainable Option: Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Renewed)

As previously mentioned, the Android phone market is massive. If youre not sure what kind of operating system any given smartphone has, you can bet its more than likely going to be an Android phone. The Android OS is as reliable as Google, so long as the manufacturer doesnt cheap out on the phone tech. Here are a few things I looked for when picking the best Android phone.

Speed: Any modern smartphone is only as good as its operating speed. After all, a smartphone is more often than not a way to keep us connected when were out on the go. Applications and the internet browser should be quick, even when you have a fair amount of them open in the background. Pricier models even come with processors that can handle more complex apps and even console-quality games.

Graphics: It doesnt matter what phone youre looking at nowadays. Dollars to donuts, theres a good chance the front of the phone will consist of a giant screen thats usually borderless. Pretty as a bright and shiny screen may be at first glance, that doesnt mean that it will always be easy on the eyes.

Nowadays, smartphones pride themselves on being complete multimedia devices, for surfing, streaming, and occasionally gaming. Theres a good chance that your Android phone is one of the screens youre going to be staring at longer than others, so it shouldnt hurt your eyes.

Camera: While phones in camera arent quite DSLR-quality yet, cameras are getting better, and perhaps more importantly, bigger. The Samsung Galaxy S21 contains two big cameras inside it, a 108MP f/1.8 main camera, and a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide number. This allows for tons of freedom when it comes to snapping pictures on the go, especially for those who love to stunt on the haters for Instagram. And while rear cameras pack serious photo punch, even the front-facing camera on an Android phone should be at least halfway decent, for Google Duo calls and the occasional selfie.

Battery Life: Android phones are lauded for their processing power. But what good is all that power if the battery drains to nothing in a matter of hours? Some phones, like the Moto G Power flaunt a battery life so long it sounds fake (Three days?) Even the best phones will usually need to charge overnight. If an Android phone requires multiple charges a day, it may not be worth the hassle of buying it, let alone owning it.

Related: Energize with the best wireless chargers.

Why It Made The Cut: Google Pixel 6 Pro is designed from the ground up to provide a seriously powerful smartphone at an excellent price.

Specs: Weight: 7.4 ounces Dimensions: 6.5 inches L x 3 inches W x 0.4 inches H Screen: 6.7 inch LTPO OLED Refresh Rate: 120Hz Camera: 50MP primary, 12MP Ultra-Wide, 50MP Telephoto RAM: 12GB Storage: 128-512GB

Pros: Professional camera system Advanced AI Gorgeous build-quality

Cons: Less than stellar battery life

Youd think that Google would have the market cornered considering it programs the OS for Android phones. And while the Google Pixel line isnt awful, it always lagged behind competitors like Samsung and Motorola in terms of specifications and build-quality. Google finally cracked the code with the Google Pixel 6 Pro.

The 6.7-inch LTPO OLED screen is one of the biggest on the market, being just barely smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The screen is also thicker than before, with twice as much scratch resistance to previous Pixel models. Performance is optimized whether youre playing a game of Fortnight, watching YouTube, or looking to conserve battery. But the Google Pixel 6 Pro trulystands apart when you look at its camera. The primary, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses capture up to 150 percent more light which renders richer and more vivid colors, even at night. It makes a professional photographer out of the novice, with easy-to-use editing tools. The one downside is the battery life almost ensures you need to plug this in at least a couple of times a day. For a phone at this price point, its still an unbeatable value.

Why It Made The Cut: The Samsung S21 Ultra is unmatched in its speed, camera, and graphic capabilities, as long as youre willing to make the investment.

Specs: Weight: 2.8 pounds Dimensions: 2.97 inches L x 6.5 inches W x 0.35 inches H Screen: 6.8 inch AMOLED Refresh Rate: 120Hz Camera: Wide Angle: 108MP Laser AF, Telephoto 1: 10MP AF, Telephoto 2: 10MP AF, Ultra-Wide: 12MP AF RAM: 12-16GB Storage: 128-512GB

Pros: The most gorgeous smartphone screen on the market Lightning fast processor High-quality cameras

Cons: Astronomical price No SD card slot

The Samsung Galaxy line is synonymous with quality, and the S21 Ultra is the most premium option available. And while the price is so high it may have you glancing at the latest iPhone, the big upgrades in this not-so-little-marvel make it a worthy upgrade.

The first stark thing about the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is its massive screen. If it looks bigger and brighter, its because it is. The AMOLED screen offers serious display power, incredible color clarity, and adapts to any lighting environment so your eyes wont suffer after prolonged viewing. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor redefines fast processing. Expect load times to become a thing of the past. While other smartphones lack one good camera, the Galaxy S21 packs four powerful cameras in the rear alone. A 108MP wide angle lens will work for most tasks, but the 12MP ultra wide lens and two telephoto lenses may make you hang up your DSLR. Despite all these features, the absence of an SD card slot is a near-criminal.

Why It Made The Cut: While it may lack the technical luster of pricier models, it can run up to three days without needing to be plugged in.

Specs: Weight: 7 ounces Dimensions: 6.6 inches L x 3 inches W x 0.4 inches H Screen: 6.4 inch FHD+ Max Vision display Refresh Rate: 90Hz Camera: 16MP Rapid-Focus, 2MP Macro Vision, 8MP 118-degree ultra-wide angle RAM: 4GB Storage: 64GB

Pros: Nearly endless battery life Surprising level of performance Durable and reliable

Cons: Outdated graphical capabilities

No matter how much money you spend on an Android phone, there are going to be at least a few instances a week where you scramble for your charger as your devices battery dips into the red. Motorola designed an entire Android phone to alleviate this anxiety with the Moto G Power.

Not only will this phone charge up and stay charged, but it will hold it for up to three days. Thats a stark difference against even the most premium models, which will last for a single day, in the best cases. For a phone that puts battery life above all else, its capabilities are still impressive. The Qualcomm 665 processor and 4GB of RAM is enough for quick app usage, and even a fair amount of gaming capabilities. Even the 16MP camera is way better than it needs to be. The place the Motorola lacks power is in its screen, which is not only 720p, but even looks pixelated from certain angles. As ancient as the visuals feel, its a sturdy and powerful workforce. And its so affordable that it may be prudent to invest in one to use in emergencies.

Why It Made The Cut: A premium design, built-in Hasselblad mobile camera, and lightning fast charging capabilities make the OnePlus 9 worth the upgrade.

Specs: Weight: 6.7 ounces Dimensions: 6.4 inches L x 2.9 inches W x 0.34 inches H Screen: 6.5 inch Fluid AMOLED Refresh Rate: 120Hz Camera: 48MP Main Camera, 50MP Ultra-Wide, 2MP Monochrome Camera RAM: 8GB Storage: 128GB

Pros: Exclusive built-in Hasselblad camera Fast performance, never overheats Charges to full in as little as 15 minutes

Cons: No telephoto lens Glossy shell attracts fingerprints like magnets

The OnePlus brand, for all its faults, has always put out pretty solid devices. While the brand itself doesnt have the sheen of a Samsung Galaxy or a Google Pixel, the OnePlus 9 is one of the best Android phones for the money.

The Qualcomm 888 processor makes the OnePlus 9 purr even when its running demanding apps and games. Not that youd ever know it, considering that its built to remain cool even as you put it through the ringer. Better yet, even if youre using it for hours and the battery drains, you can charge it back to full in as little as 15 minutes. These quality-of-life improvements alone make it a stellar choice, but what truly sets it apart is the built-in Hasselblad camera. Swedish camera titans Hasselblad worked with OnePlus to create stunning photography on a mobile device. It calibrates color to look more natural than ever to capture breathtaking natural scenes, detailed portraits, and everything in between. Despite this, its one of the few cameras in this price point without a dedicated telephoto lens. It also attracts fingerprints pretty easily, but thats nothing a good case cant alleviate.

Why It Made The Cut: This featherweight class Android phone packs plenty of features in a small package, and within reach of many budgets.

Specs: Weight: 5.5 ounces Dimensions: 6.32 inches L x 2.98 inches W x 0.27 inches H Screen: 6.55 inch FHD+ AMOLED DotDisplay screen Refresh Rate: 60/90Hz Camera: 64MP Primary Camera, 8MP Ultra-Wide Camera, 5MP Telemacro Camera RAM: 6-8GB Storage: 64-128GB

Pros: Elegant and sleek design Detailed AMOLED DotDisplay screen Sturdy and reliable performance

Cons: Lackluster camera system

Are there Android phones that are less expensive than the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite? Absolutely. But for a few dollars more, this budget-friendly phone will stand close to even some of the most premium Android phone offerings.

At a mere 5.5 ounces, you may forget youre even carrying a phone, if it wasnt for that big 6.5-inch AMOLED screen. Its easy on the eyes in more ways than one, as it adjusts to different light levels so you wont strain your peepers, especially since theres a good chance youll be looking at it for hours. The Xiaomi Mi Lite 11 can run video for up to 16 hours before needing to charge, making it a great go-to for on-the-go streaming. The Snapdragon 732 is not as powerful as the newer processors in the Qualcomm line, but it may be more than you need. While the camera system isnt terrible, its not as good as it could be. The Ultra-Wide camera doesnt stand up to the same quality found in Google Pixel Pro. Its a fair trade off, as just about every other feature in this camera is pretty stellar. If you want an inexpensive Android device to play around with, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite offers tons of possibilities for fun.

Why It Made The Cut: When it comes to sustainability in Android phones in the states, buying a refurbished model is tech and eco smart.

Specs: Weight: 6.6 ounces Dimensions: 6.2 inches L x 2.9 inches W x 0.3 inches H Screen: 6.2 inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED Refresh Rate: 60Hz Camera: Super Speed Dual Pixel 12MP AF, Dual Aperture 12MP RAM: 6GB Storage: 64GB

Pros: Sustainable choice Extremely affordable Stellar tech specs

Cons: Used products occasionally a gamble

With new phones coming out year after year, last years models often end up in landfills. Companies like Fairphone manufacture their phones sustainably, but theyre only available if you live in Europe. There is one avenue you can take that qualifies as sustainable: buying a refurbished phone like the Samsung Galaxy S9+.

Lateral thinking with withered technology, is a philosophy that Nintendo has used to become a multi-billion dollar gaming company. It basically means that you dont need high end specs to have fun. And what is a smartphone but fun in your pocket? The Samsung Galaxy S9+ is three years old, but it still definitely holds up. A 12MP camera is good enough for most jobs, and even records in 4K. The Snapdragon: Adreno 630 packs a surprising amount of power and speed. This means its great for gaming and playing media. Yes, its been refurbished, but its also got a bit of a battery upgrade which exceeds its original battery life by 80 percent. Of course, it may come with a little wear and tear, but its nothing that a nice case cant solve in many cases.

This is perhaps the most crucial thing to consider when buying an Android Phone online. Many phones, especially when a massive discount is applied, will only work with certain cellular carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint among others. Luckily, retailers will tell you if a phone is unlocked, which allows you to use it across multiple different carriers at will. All you need to do is put in whatever SIM card your carrier provides. It doesnt hurt to double check which carriers any given phone is compatible with before purchasing, especially if you already have a phone number you want to keep.

What do you need out of an Android phone? This is a question you should ask yourself before you decide to simply drop the big bucks on the fanciest available model. Phones like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra have a gorgeous built-in camera, but if youve got a solid DSLR it may not be worth splurging on it. Unless you plan on doing some serious gaming on them, you probably dont need a top of the line processor. At this point, a new or newish Qualcomm Snapdragon line processor will be more than enough for folks who just want to surf, stream, and message.

Many new phones are made with AMOLED screens. It stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes, and its a style of OLED thats made for smartphones. Anyone that owns an OLED device can tell you that the difference is rather stark. A wider array of colors display, and they come in even more vibrant than before. This translates to better resolution, and a better viewing experience overall. Its why everything from TV screens to Nintendo Switch models have these big, bright screens. Once you experience the crisp color clarity, its hard to go back to a non-OLED screen.

One of the biggest selling points of an Android phone is that they provide so much freedom. You can front-load apps that arent on the Google Play store, customize your UI to look and feel the way you want it no matter the OS. The allure hit me last year when I turned a OnePlus phone into a portable retro gaming machine. I was able to play Metroid Prime in bed, which was worth the cost of admission alone.

Endless as the avenues for customization may be, I just had to go back to an iPhone after a couple of months. Im a dedicated Macbook Pro and iPad user, and the way iOS devices talk with each other simply cant be matched. Yes, Android phones often have better specs, and allow for far more in the realm of independence. Apple doesnt make it easy to play with your tech the way Android devices do. Still, if youre an Apple fanatic that works across multiple devices, it may be difficult to betray the brand.

Q: What is the fastest Android phone?What is the fastest Android phone? Many top of the line Android phones contain fast processors. Of our picks, the OnePlus 9 and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra are incredibly fast.

Q: How much does an Android phone cost?How much does an Android phone cost? New Android phones run from a couple hundred to just over a thousand dollars. Our budget pick is the Xiaomi Mi Lite, and our premium pick is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Q: Which phone has the best battery?The phone that has the best battery is easily the Moto G Power, which can run up to three days before it needs to be charged.

Q: What is the lifespan of an Android phone?The lifespan of an Android phone is, on average and if taken care of, two to three years. The Europe-exclusive environmentally friendly Fairphone 5 is supported for up to five years.

Related: The best modems for speedy connections.

Theres a good chance that no matter what youre looking to get out of an Android phone, theres a model built just for you. For an unfathomable amount of battery life, the Moto G Power will dazzle and amaze, with up to three days of juice on a single charge. After countless tries, Google finally cracked the code with the Google Pixel 6 Pro, which is our overall favorite when it comes to performance, look, and perhaps most importantly, price. If youve got the cash to spare, the allure of the coveted Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra may be impossible to ignore. As far as Android phones go, its the epitome of excellence.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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2021 Sportsperson of the Year: Tom Brady – Sports Illustrated

Age is just a number. But that number is on the move, and longevity is on its way to running up the score. According to the United Nations, in 1990 there were 95,000 people on the planet who made it to 100. Today there are more than 500,000 centenarians, and, by 2100, its projected there will be more than 25 million. In 1980, around 382 million people were 60 and older. By 2050, that number will exceed 2 billion. There are some gerontologists who believe the first person to live to age 150 has already been born. Others ask: Are we so sure there are age limitations on human life?

What are fun facts and dinner-party conversation starters for us are foundational to the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida. Its the largestand, appropriately, one of the oldestschool of its kind in the country. Its mission statement cites a commitment to understanding the biological, psychological, social and public policy aspects of aging. But talk to faculty casually and its clear that one of the core principles of the curriculum is this: to teach life hacks that help human beings get older with grace.

Located as it is in Tampathe U.S. metro area with the densest concentration of senior citizensthe school has always had plenty of subject matter and data points nearby. But now, the campus is also within a golf-cart drive of the archetype for aging gracefully. Want to conduct a field study to see what longevity looks like in practice (not to mention in games)? Well, Tom Brady lives and works just a few miles away.

For all his manifold football gifts, Bradys true superpower is his ability to take time, stretch it out like the resistance bands he uses and then double it back. For the 44-year-old, time is a construct, measurable by ways other than revolutions around the sun.

Id say there are parts of me that are 55, and I think theres parts of me that are 25, says Brady. What parts? I think Im wise beyond my years. I think Ive had a lot of life experience packed into 44 years. When I go through the tunnel and onto the field? Probably mid-30sand Ive got to work really hard to feel good. Its a demolition derby every Sunday. I feel 25 when Im in the locker room with the guys. Which is probably why I still do it.

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Order the 2021 Sportsperson of the Year Issue

He explains this theory of time on a warm Tuesday in November. Hes seated inside a Tampa yacht clubhes not a member, hes quick to point outthat looks out over Hillsborough Bay and is convenient to Bradys home. He has risen early this morning (of course). Walking with energy and purpose he enters the main dining room carrying a water bottle the size of a fire extinguisher. He is wearing designer sweats and a big, warm smile that makes his teeth look like a row of white iPod Nanoskids, ask your parentsaligned perfectly inside his square jaw.

Back to time: How the hell is he still doing this, volunteering for those weekly car crashes for months and months, well into his 40s? Its complicated. Its not like I wake up every day, like, Hey, man, its another sunny day! says Brady. No, its like, All right, lets grind and move on. Then he quickly adds, Theres still joy. The competitions fun and, uh, you know, Im still pretty good at it, too.

Theres also the specter of the alternative: I imagine not playing. And I imagine watching football on Sundays going, These guys suck. I could do way better than that. And then still knowing in my heart that I actually could still do it. If I stopped, I think Id have to find something else that Im pretty good at. And I dont think that, you know, Im going to be able to jump into something that has the same amount of excitement.

So long as thats the case, so long as he can continue finding fulfillment, Brady will play on, thanks. Hes fond of a phrase that suggests continuity, one that befits someone so committed to hydration: Why not keep drinking?

If, in the manner of Bradys career, we want to extend that analogy: Its not just that he is still drinking; he is chugging. And theres no indication hes near the bottom of the glass. He is at an age when even the finest of his peers are beyond their prime. Roger Federer (40), Serena Williams (40), Albert Pujols (41), Tiger Woods (45). Titans all, but not acclaimed for their athletic achievements in 2021.

Then there is Brady. Still pretty good at it warrants a 15-yard penalty for flagrant understatement. He continues to discharge his duties with his customary, clinical excellence. He still throws with precision and maneuvers deftly in the pocket. Maybe more than ever, he maintains command of himself, and by extension his team, projecting comfort, evincing poise when it matters most. And he is still winning.

Brady started the year by piloting his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to five straight wins, one to end the 2020 regular season and four in the playoffs. The culmination came on Feb. 7, when Brady started his 10th Super Bowl. He walked away with his seventh ring and was named Super Bowl MVP for the fifth time, leaving his heel print on yet another NFL season.

Early in the offseason Brady flew to Los Angeles and cleaned up (his phrase) his left knee. In this season, his 22nd, he has turned in some of the most brilliant shifts of his career. Brady leads the league in touchdown passes (34), the unprecedented 600th of his career coming in October, and the Bucs lead the league in scoring (31.4 points per game). His team is 93, and Brady is among the favorites to be named MVP. And he has already, officially, taken this honor: Tom Brady is the 2021 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year.

Brady, this year, is the recipient of the 68th annual SOTY. He alsomind the gapwon the honor in its 52nd year. That was for his excellence in 2005, a time when cars ran only on gasoline, squarely in the flip-phone era. How long ago was this? In the SI article celebrating Brady there is a reference to his posing once while holding a goat. And its describing a bizarre photo shootnot nodding to the GOAT, the honorific that now, of course, accompanies most mentions of Brady.

TitledThe Ultimate Teammate,the story praises Brady for his work ethic (You can see his innate ability to carry the logic of practice to the conclusion of a game) and his commitment to incremental improvement (the grinding work of constructing football excellence that pays off in the public performance). Brady, then in his 20s, speaks cautiously but describes his passion for football: I love it so. Just running out there in front of 70,000 people. Also, his sheepishness about standing out: I dont need to be the showstopper, the entertainer. Id much rather people assume Im one of the guys.

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Here, in 2021, Bradys coach, Bruce Arians, takes inventory of his quarterback, reeling off a string of superlatives but landing on a familiar turn of phrase: He is the ultimate team player. To a man, the Buccaneers describe Brady being down to earth.

Brady is, you might say, committed to the role. His organizing football principles are largely unchanged. Same for his leadership traits and his character. And yet in other ways Brady is a much different man than that 28-year-old bachelor. Handed the cover from 2005, he smiles. I think I recognize that person, he says. But theres so much more to me now.

He is the best-ever practitioner of the most important position in his sportperhaps in all sports. But lets be clear: This award is not for lifetime achievement but based on Bradys body of work over the last 12 months. This is not an aging athlete admirably hanging on. This is an athlete who may never have performed better.

It happened not even two years ago and already it carries a historic ring, cemented into those hinge-point New England moments, deserving of its own shorthand, right up there with Revere Rides Through Town, Tea Dumped in Harbor and Sox Exorcise Curse. And, for that matter, from fall of 2001: Backup QB Brady Thrown Into Fray.

On March 16, 2020, as COVID-19 was just ramping up in the U.S., Brady drove to the home of Patriots owner Robert Kraft to make official what he had decided privately months before. As Brady recalled to Howard Stern, I was crying. Im a very emotional person. After 20 unbroken years with New England,Brady to Become Free Agent.

Brady didnt arrive at the decision easily. He knew well that this stay-or-go athlete dilemma tends to yield mixed results. The player with whom he always will be bracketed, Peyton Manning, left Indianapolis for Denver, won a Super Bowl and never played another NFL down. That was nearly six years ago. The day Brady won his first Super Bowl, in 2002, Michael Jordan was playing, unmemorably, for the Washington Wizards. And Brady still winces when he recalls when, as a teenage 49ers fan in San Mateo, Calif., he learned that his idol, Joe Montana, was decamping late in his career to Kansas City.

Two days after Brady met with Kraft, Arians sat in his home with Bucs general manager Jason Licht. For months they had been running point on a recruiting mission they called Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson. (Field of Dreams . . . get it?) That afternoon Brady called Arians, who passed the phone to Licht, who recalls that when Brady began the conversation, Hey, babe, it was safe to assume the Buccaneers had their man. It was a phone call, and it was during COVID, says Licht. But it was one of the biggest moments in franchise history.

First came the yuks. Brady was going to Florida, because . . . Florida. Where else do well-preserved Northeasterners go when its time to throttle back? Then came the cynicism. Brady was availing himself either of the states lack of personal income tax or the congenial weather or the Buccaneers soft expectations. Here was a franchise that, pre-Brady, had an all-time winning percentage of .386 (267-424-1), the worst of any major mens U.S. pro team.

Brady, though, is nothing if not a pragmatist. Tampa was a market with low-intensity lighting, and still a short flight away from his son Jack, who lives in New York City. Brady is also a football pragmatist. He saw a team with a loaded defense, exceptional skill-position players and sturdy offensive line. He also saw the opportunity for an invigorating culture change. Arians, 69, was born within six months of Bill Belichick but cuts a different figureenjoying, as he does, laughter, self-deprecation, motorcycle rides and a reputation as perhaps the least autocratic coach in the NFL.

But that was only the start. Brady laughs as he plays the compare-and-contrast game: different conference, different division, different coaches, different offense, different terminology, different players, different drive to the stadium. Determined that the divorce remains amicable, Brady gently reroutes conversation about the Pats. But this he will say: Our team here, I think there are more voices. And its fine. Theres different ways to be successful.

With Brady, the Bucs started out 75. In New England this might have marked a crisis. (Belichick always had a saying, Brady recalls. When you win, your quality of life is better for everybody.) In Tampa it did not. The COVID-19-constricted season was supposed to be one of transition for the Bucs; in 2021, they would really be a cohesive unit. But then Tampa Bay didnt lose another game the rest of the season.

Brady found a different kind of coach in Arians (left), but the end result was a familiar one.

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated (2)

Before Super Bowl LV, Brady recognized a sort of power imbalance. He had played in more big games than the rest of his teammates, combined. So he sent a blizzard of texts to them. Some were sent individually, some to a group. Some contained motivational saws (process over perfection); some were concrete instructions about schemes or observations that Brady had picked up while watching film of their opponent, the Chiefs.

Licht recalls that hours before the game he took time to try to savor the moment, to drink it all in, as his quarterback might put it. One season earlier Tampa Bay was 79 with an offense piloted by Jameis Winston; now, with Tom Friggin Brady under center, the Bucs were in the Super Bowl. The game was at Raymond James Stadium (even if cardboard cutouts filled two-thirds of the seats); no other host team had ever played in a Super Bowl. Brady noticed Licht, walked over, sat down beside him on the bench, smiled his smile and said simply but firmly, Jason, its going to be a great day. And it was.

Ask Brady about a singular moment from the game and he strokes the light stubble on his chin, trying to come up with something specific. The defense played well; the opponent did not. Brady was at his Brady-est; his best plays didnt stand out in the way they do for other star quarterbacks, but the ball always got where it had to be with virtually no mistakes. Unflustered and unhurried, he completed 21 of 29 and connected with his old buddy, tight end Rob Gronkowski, for two of his three touchdowns.

Tampa Bay, a three-point underdog, prevailed, 319. In the weeks before the game, Brady strenuouslyand probably wiselyavoided the obvious story line, the one that traced back to New England. Arians did not. Tom is playing for his teammates right now, Arians told SI in January. I think personally, too, hes making a statement. You know? It wasnt all Coach Belichick.

Brady recalled the postgame scene after the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX in 2015: We had beaten Seattle and we flew home to Boston, and I came home to a house that was flooding. I mean, literally, I had a broken pipe and I had a waterfall coming down. And that night you thank God. Its so glorious the night after a Super Bowl. [But] the reality? I got to fix this leak in my house.

Ben, Gisele and Vivian were among Brady's family on the field after the Super Bowl LV win.

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

In a sense it was a healthy reminder that the real world happens, even to Super Bowl MVPs, so its important to savor the moments before the pipes burst. Now it comes to him: The highlight of that night, of Super Bowl LV, was when he brought his familyhis wife, model Gisele Bndchen; their kids, Ben, 12, and Vivian, 9; and Jack, 14, Bradys son with actor Bridget Moynahanonto the field to celebrate.

That Brady wasand isa winning football player makes for something other than a news flash, especially for the men who recruited him to Florida. Even so, both Arians and Licht marvel at the full force of the Brady Aura.

Arians tells the story of watching Brady lead an early informal workout with tight end O.J. Howard and wide receiver Scotty Miller. Arians had recently told both players about the need to pump their arms on their routes. When they didnt, Brady also noticed and pointed it out to his two teammates.

Says Arians, They look at me [when I tell them] and go, Oh, O.K. And when Tom tells them they go, O.K., Tom! And they do it. Arians then cackles, thinking of other messages he would let Brady communicate to players on his behalf. He tells em to do it, and they listen! (Pause for a thought exercise: Imagine Bradys previous coach joking about delegating some of his duties to the charismatic quarterback.)

Brady may have, like the rest of us, binged The Last DanceThats my era!but his leadership style is at striking odds with that of the basketball GOAT. Michael Jordan demanded that his teammates match his intensity and humiliated those who couldnt handle his lacerating edges. Brady is all soft power. Teammates should feel seen and heard. Gaps in accomplishments and fameand commitment levelsamong players must be bridged. Experience is something to be shared.

Licht laughs when Brady introduces himself warmly to rookies and new teammates by saying, Im Tom Brady. No s---, youre Tom Brady. But the message is clear, as is the effect. Tom is known as the greatest player of all time, and I get the sense they were expecting him to come in and want preferential treatment and have an egowhich would be well deserved, says Licht. But he just wants to be one of the guys. He wants to earn their respect. And they think, I dont want to let this guy down. We all think that.

Early on Brady issued a request to his new center, Ryan Jensen. Could he apply baby powder to his backside to keep the football free of sweat? Jensen complied, then walked around the field trailed by chalky plumes, as if he were announcing the new pope. Before it could be a source of embarrassment or teasing in the locker room, Brady spoke to teammates to make sure it was taken as instructional: These are precisely the kind of small sacrifices and adjustments you make when you are fully committed to winning.

More than ever Brady is surrounded by teammates who entered the league with more fanfare. Mike Evans, his favorite downfield target, was the seventh pick in 2014. Tampa Bays top running back, Leonard Fournette, went fourth in 17. Even Bradys backup, Blaine Gabbert, was the 10th choice in 11. Two decades after he left Michigan, Bradys modest draft slot ofall together now199, still galvanizes him. He had to work for everything, says Arians, and he just never, never lets himself forget that.

But the coach noticed something else: Brady has taken a source of personal motivation and alchemized it into something to benefit his teammates. What was once aboutto use the tired tropeproving the doubters wrong has evolved into, Guys, if I can go from good to great, you sure as hell can, too.

Its hard to exaggerate just how statistically outlying Bradys longevity is. The NFLs next-oldest player is Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth, who will be 40 on Dec. 12. Brady is closer in age to Dan Marino, who played his last game in 1999, than he is to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Nearly half the NFLs coaches13 of 32are younger than he is. (Though Bradys own coach, pointedly, is the leagues third-oldest.)

Keep going? Brady is older than 59 members of Congress. On that fateful day in 2000, when 198 other players were summoned into the NFL workplace ahead of Brady? Bill Clinton was president. There have been six presidential elections since. Remember, too: Bradys longevity-to-the-point-of-absurdity is coming in pro football, a sport in which careers are notoriously nasty, brutish and short. And there hasnt been any sign of falloff.

Thats not just the eye test; advanced statistics bear it out too. Arianss offense attacks deeper than mostno risk it, no biscuit being the operative phrase. In 2020, Bradys air yards per intended pass, a measure of how far downfield a quarterback throws on average, jumped to 9.3 yards, a 22% increase from his last season in New England. Yet, despite the higher degree of difficulty, his completion rate also rose, from 60.8% to 65.7%.

Hes doing it at a time when defenders have become freakish in their own right. From 2000 to 03, Bradys first four seasons in the league, 10 defensive linemen clocked in under 4.7 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFLs scoutingcombine. Over the past four years, 41 have done so. That has led to an emphasis in athleticism among the new class of quarterbacks. Indeed, according to Next Gen Stats tracking data, through Week 12 of the 2021 season only Steelers vet Ben Roethlisberger was covering less ground per play (7.2 yards) than Brady (8.0).

In the 2021 opener Brady picked up where he left off, in a victory over the Cowboys.

Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Retirement has its appealgolf, time with the family, business opportunitiesbut it is outstripped by the lure of continuing to work. And so it is that Al Michaels, 77, the voice of NBCs Sunday Night Football, has consulted with and confided in Brady. Their pregame broadcast production meetings, once filled with football shop talk, now veer toward weightier topics and shared experiences. Says Michaels, When I see Tom, I think, Damn, you can go at that level no matter what youre doing, and I feel like I can. Its just a cool thing, the kind of symmetry.

Michaels isnt alone in finding inspiration in Bradys longevity. UFC fighters, European soccer players, pro golfers, athletes of a certain maturitythey all try to see some version of themselves in Brady and come seeking his counsel and inspiration. Comb social media and youll find teachers crediting Brady with their decision to get back in the classroom, pilots referencing him when they decided to stave off retirement.

Even though serving as a standard-bearer for manipulating time only adds to his pressures, Brady welcomes the opportunity. If people want what I want, then Im there to help them, Brady says. If they dont? All right, let them do their own thing. No problem. But if you come to me and you say, Hey, how can I have a career like yours? Id be very happy to help anybody.

At the same time Brady readily admits that he holds no secrets; he, too, looks to others. His wife. His parents. Towering athletesMontana, Jordan, Steve Youngwho came before him. But he also turns to a sort of council of elders, whove lived well and lived long. Ageless Tom Brady might work alongside teammates half his age, but he often socializes with men twice as old, many of them successful entrepreneurs or titans of industry. They neither want nor need a selfie or comp tickets or the nimbus of Bradys celebrity. These friendships come without the whiff of transaction.

The tribal elder in this circle might be Sam Reeves. Armed with a wealth of stories he tells in a slow Southern drawl, Reeves made his fortune as a cotton merchant. He recently gave up bodysurfing but still plays 150 rounds of golf a year. Hes 87, but he puts his functional age in the early 60s. Im not really paying attention to the chronological, he says.

Reeves recalls meeting Brady while playing golf at Pebble Beach maybe 20 years ago, and the two have been close friends ever since. I didnt know much about him, says Reeves, but he was so gracious. Through Reeves, Brady has met various other wise men, including Jimmy Dunne, 65, vice chairman and senior managing principal of Piper Sandler investment bank.

When Brady is in the company of these wise men, decades older, he spends a lot of time listening. Learning from those people is really important to me, says Brady. I dont think you can go through life and be fixed. I was listening to someone the other day, and they said, The words I dont know are the most powerful words because theyre limitless. Its limitless potential. And as soon as you think you know something, youre fixed.

Reeves has given great thought to what makes Brady special and has come up with three bullet points:

He makes people feel valued. That could mean really listeninghes an extraordinary listenerto someone hes meeting for the first time. He thrives on excellence, for himself and those around him. He wants you to have what he has. He wants people to be the best they canbut hell help you get there. He is a person of joy. Pain is inevitablecertainly in footballbut misery is optional, and Tom does not accept misery. Tom runs the opposite way. He runs to joy.

Then Reeves absently adds a fourth. Tom keeps his routines, but he is open to adventures. And . . . wait . . . catch that? It sounds like a throwaway line, but aha. That, as much as anything, might unlock the secret to Bradysand, for that matter, ourlongevity.

Yes, Tom keeps his routines, so much so that his fanatical habits figure prominently in the mythology. His sleep schedule and his infrared pajamas. His training and his plyometrics. We know about his hydration and his electrolyte intake. Lord knows we know about his diet and nutrition. He dares to eat a peach . . . and avocado ice cream. (There is a sports-media edict that says Brady cannot be discussed without a reference to avocado ice cream.) But he dares not ingest carbs, nightshades, dairy, white sugar or white flour.

Golf is one of Brady's passions off the field, though he and Mickelson (far right) fell to Aaron Rodgers (second from left) and Bryson DeChambeau (middle) in The Match last summer.

Dylan Buell/Getty Images for The Match

Ross Andel, director of the School of Aging Studies at USF, notes that routines and good habits are essential for optimal aging. A Bucs fan, Andel sees Brady and his defiance of time and is unsurprised. His ability to stay disciplined is second to none, says Andel. Other people look for a quick fix or go to extremes. He doesnt mind hard work. He holds onto his schedule. Theres such a resilience.

Yet when discussing keys to graceful aging, Andel also references an opposite, even contradictory, instinct: a willingness to adaptI never want to be fixed . . . he is open to adventuresto stimulate new parts of the brain and pleasure centers. In short, to evolve.

Andel points to a German study in which volunteers were taught to juggle. As the subjects picked up a new skill, brain imaging revealed changes in gray matter. As the subjects became capable jugglers and the skill was no longer novel, the gray matter reverted to its levels before the study. The brain had nothing to adapt to, so it put the neurons elsewhere, says Andel. Its the stimulation, the change of environment that challenges the brain and redistributes our bodily resources. That, says Andel, encapsulates Brady. Hes unbelievably adaptable.

So credit Brady for his rigidity. But his relentless success owes just as much to the opposite trait, his flexibility. Does he contradict himself? Very well then, he contradicts himself. He is large. He contains multitudes. Moving to a different franchise in a different state with a different corporate culture? That example of his adaptability is just one of many.

Brady might, rightly, be depicted as the exponent of clean living. But there he was in February, giving new zest to the phrase drunken fling as he hurled the Lombardi Trophy Frisbee-like from one boat to another during Tampa Bays Super Bowl celebration. He then put to rest any questions about his sobriety with the unforgettable tweet, Noting to see her . . . just litTle avoCado tequila.

Brady is an unapologetic capitalist. His NFL salary of $25 million is dwarfed by his various businesses and investments, from the TB12 health and wellness brand to his clothing line, to his 199 Productions content studio, to his stake and promotion of a cryptocurrency firm. His NFT company, Autograph, is widely considered an industry leader in digital collectibles. Hes arrowing toward billionaire status, if not there already. And hes not simply slapping his name on products. He is poring over balance sheets and Zooming into board meetings, glimpsing his post-NFL life while still playing.

On the other hand, Brady doesnt always show fidelity to the market. His NFL salary, which does not consign him to eating ramen, still ranks ninth in average annual value among QBs. Hes never wanted to be the highest-paid quarterback, says Arians, because [doing so] would mean not getting maybe two other good players.

As much as Brady values health, he mourns the rule changes that diminish the physical risk of football. The game I played 20 years ago is very different from the game now, in the sense that its more of a skills competition than it is physical football, he says. Its like being in the boxing ring and saying, Dont hit your opponent because you might hurt him. Look, were both able to protect ourselves. Im looking at you. Youre looking at me. Lets go.

Brady made those remarks recently on Lets Go, the podcast he hosts with former receiver Larry Fitzgerald and sportscaster Jim Gray each week. And this might represent the most striking example of Bradys adaptability. For most of his career he was willfully, even strategically, unknowable. Not surly or standoffish, but you might say that long before COVID-19, Brady wore a mask. As he put it this summer on HBOs The Shop: What I say versus what I think are two totally different things. I would say 90% of what I say is probably not what Im thinking.

Whatever the case, lately were hearing from Brady more often than ever before. There he is on late-night couches. There he is in a self-effacing Subway commercial. And calling into Howard Stern. The podcast medium suits him especially wellnot just his own, but others (What did [I] major in? F------ football, man, Brady said on actor Dax Shepards Armchair Expert). Hes also jacked up his activity on social media, often hilariously. After a tweet surfaced comparing the TB12 Method with Terry Bradshaws TB 12 beers a day methods, @TomBrady issued the A-plus retweet last month, Tomato, tomahto.

In the 2021 calendar year, Brady has more passing yards (5,231) and passing touchdowns (48) than any quarterback in football, and the Bucs have a better record(143)than any team in football.

Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Brady accepts the premise that lately he has put himself out there. Im rediscovering my voice, he says, and Im having fun with it. The obvious correlation: Brady feels he is able to reveal himself and have this fun now that he is liberated from his coach in New England and from the tight organizational controls. He doesnt deny that.

But theres another correlation. His age. I think theres more comfort just as an older guy, too. My give-a-s--- levels are probably a lot less. Im kind of like, O.K., whats it gonna be like in 10 years? Im really not going to give a s--- then.

It is, of course, irresistible to hear Brady talk about his future and not indulge in speculation about how many more times the odometer can turn over. Licht has already stoked fires (and social media accounts) when he predicted Brady would play until age 50. He doubles down with SI: I dont see any signs of decline whatsoever.

Brady predicts that the source of his declinewhenever that may bewill be spiritual, not physical: Regressing would be a very difficult thing for me to see. As soon as I see myself regress, Ill be like, Im out. I dont really want to see myself get bad. So its just a constant pursuit of trying not to be bad.

Trying not to be bad? Really?

I think if anything, the most challenging part is the emotional aspect of football for me, Brady says. When we lose, its depressing. When we win, its a relief. Its not like the joy, the happinessits a relief. Because when we win, sometimes just winning isnt good enough for you, because you expect perfection, and when you expect perfection and its less than perfect, you feel like theres a down part to that.

Then again, this drive, this internal combustion engine, is what keeps Brady playing at this exalted level. Winning a seventh Super Bowl doesnt dull his ambition for an eighth. Throwing a pass into a window the size of a playing card only increases his desire to deliver another one.

Its like hitting the perfect 7-iron, he says. You go, How was that? And I go, That was pretty great! I want to do it again! You just constantly keep chasing it.

It was recently put to Brady: Is there anything specific he has yet to achieve in his unrivaled career? His first answer: not really. But he did note that, in all his years and for all that success, he has never won a game on a last-second Hail Mary.

The temptation is to tell Brady that hes completed footballs ultimate Hail Mary. The backup at Michigan whose 40-yard dash time could be clocked with a sundial going from the sixth round to the GOAT pasture, with seven Super Bowl rings? Whose excellence remains unabated at 44? Except that a Hail Mary implies a level of luck. The Legend of Brady is predicated on anything but fluke or chance. Its deliberate and smart and rational.

So here is a manand a sportspersonfor all of time. And for this time. And as aging does its thing, as mitochondria begin to deteriorate, as the mortal coil unwinds, Tom Brady comes bearing lessons for us all about contorting and distorting time, if not stopping it altogether. Balance routine with new adventure. Even more than anatomy, its attitude and character that shape destiny. Head off into the sun, not the sunset.

And if we hydrate and eat right, so much the better.

Additional reporting by Greg Bishop and Jenny Vrentas. Additional research by Reid Foster.

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2021 Sportsperson of the Year: Tom Brady - Sports Illustrated

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