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USA Today

This is a big weekend for both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, but for two very different reasons. On Brady's end, this Sunday he'll be playing in the Super Bowl for the 10th time. As for Manning, he's expected to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2021 in an announcement that will be coming out on Saturday. 

The fact that Brady will be playing in a Super Bowl on the same weekend that Manning will be getting his Hall of Fame nod is kind of mind-blowing. Back in 2014, it didn't seem like there was any way that Brady would be able to outlast Manning's career by five years, which is how long a player has to wait in retirement before they're eligible to be in the Hall of Fame. 

No one could have ever predicted that Manning was going to retire in 2015 AND Brady would still be playing in 2021. Actually, I take that back, someone could have predicted it because someone did: TOM BRADY. 

During the Deflategate investigation in 2014, some of Brady's private emails were made public and one of those emails was about a comparison between Brady and Manning. In the email, one of Brady's friends mentioned an article that compared the career of the two quarterbacks and Brady responded by basically saying that the comparison didn't mean anything now because Brady knew he was going to outlast Manning. 

 "I've got another 7 or 8 years. He has 2," Brady wrote. "That's the final chapter. Game on."

The crazy thing is that Brady's prediction has proved to be frighteningly accurate. Brady predicted two more seasons at most for Manning and that's what happened: 2014 and 2015. Although Manning had a spectacular 2014 season, his career fell off a cliff in 2015. Sure the Broncos won the Super Bowl, but halfway through the year it became apparent that Manning had lost his fast ball and that he would almost certainly have to retire after the season was over. 

The other crazy part of Brady's prediction is that he envisioned himself playing "another 7 or 8 years." Brady was 36 when he wrote that email and he raised a lot of eyebrows back in 2014 by predicting that he would be able to play until he was 44, but it's actually going to happen. Not only is he headed to a Super Bowl at age 43, his contract still has one more year on it, which means he'll definitely be playing until he's 44 and he might even be playing longer. Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said this week that he wouldn't be surprised if Brady ended up signing an extension in Tampa.  

Brady has been to as many Super Bowls since Manning retired in 2015 (four) as Manning made it to during his entire 18-year career. Brady wasn't asked about his email this week, but he was asked about his relationship with Manning. 

"Well Peyton was someone that I always just admired as a quarterback, as a leader of a team," Brady said via CBS Boston. "I always looked up to him because he was a little older than me and he was always doing things the right way. His team was always in it. I know our teams had a rivalry against one another, but when you went against a Peyton Manning-led team, you were going against the other best team in the league. And it's no real surprise that he'd be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. An amazing player."

Speaking of first-ballot Hall of Famers, Brady will also be one at some point, but only if he actually decides to retire.