For more than 20 years, Rafael Nadal leaned into his reputation for authenticity.

Roger Federer was the tennis politician, an artless beacon of neutrality. Novak Djokovic was fated to manage the difficult task of fitting into a sport that the Nadal-Federer rivalry had come to define, by trying on a series of identities. He has only recently settled into his best fit: a tennis statesman prone to releasing the antagonistic tennis demon that he so relishes and which always lurks within.

Rafa just did Rafa. He was never afraid to be painfully honest with what was unfolding in front of his eyes or around him. Sometimes he used his words, punctuating a sentence with his trademark, “that is my true.” Sometimes it was one of those eyebrows, arched with the curve of his forehand, or the sarcastic grin that barely held back his disbelief.

“Really, amigo?” he might have said as Federer played on until 41, essentially on one knee in his final go-rounds, or as Andy Murray gamely tested rackets and tried to defy spinal surgery this spring and summer. Nadal shared with them the desire to have nothing left to give, but his decision to call it quits at 38 after the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga this November feels downright speedy by comparison even with the halting physical uncertainty of his last two years.

Nadal collected all the data he needed to conclude his time had passed in 16 matches over four months, all of them on red clay, the surface where besting him had once been arguably the toughest task in any sport. He won 10 and lost six, including two painful and somewhat lopsided defeats to Alexander Zverev and to Djokovic on Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros, his supposed living room. That was that, regardless of that raging-bull, never-quit mentality that has awed friends and foes alike for ages.

“He’s the strongest player I’ve seen, mentally, and I’m not talking just about tennis, I’m talking about all sports,” his friend and compatriot Feliciano Lopez said in an interview Thursday.

The mentality was never his doubt. Nadal wanted to play without physical limitations. He couldn’t.

“It’s obviously a difficult decision, one that has taken me some time to make,” he said in his retirement video.

“Everything in this life has a beginning and an end. I think it is the appropriate time to end a career.”

How Rafael Nadal will leave tennis

It’s true that this has been in the works for something on the order of two years, ever since Nadal pulled up while chasing a forehand in Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open in January 2023. He glared up at his box in mid-stride, his eyes so wide it looked like someone had stabbed him in the hip.

In June of that year, he had surgery to repair two muscle tears, then embarked on one last comeback, enduring another series of setbacks each time he began to feel like his game might still be within reach. Ultimately, Nadal proved incapable of deluding himself that he could ever compete with the best players in the world again.

In retrospect, it probably didn’t even take that long. At the top level of tennis today, players need to be able to collect a certain number of easy points on their serve. This was especially true for Nadal, no longer with the speed or the ability to chase down balls for four hours through five sets as he had for 20 years.

He could no longer inflict the same damage on his serve, a shot that was always something of a limitation, even as he had managed to turn it from a real weakness into something of a weapon. He could no longer lift or torque his body as he once had, and he was essentially hitting two second serves every time he stepped up to the line. That would not change, even while skipping hardcourt tournaments and the Wimbledon grass, prompting thoughts of one last trip to the French capital where he, the boy from Mallorca, has his statue.

Rafael Nadal’s final French Open saw him dealt a cruel hand by the draw in the shape of Alexander Zverev. (Alain Jocard / AFP via Getty Images)

If he couldn’t go there with the dream of doing something important, he wasn’t going to bother. He didn’t need another afternoon of adulation and parting gifts if the match that preceded it would be little more than valediction.

“I prefer to stay with all the amazing memories that I have,” he said during a news conference ahead of the 2024 French Open.

Hubert Hurkacz, who also served Federer the humiliation of a Wimbledon bagel, pummeled Nadal at the Italian Open 10 days later. Nadal blew off a post-match celebration and didn’t mince words about the performance.

“I did a disaster,” he said after the match.

A spell of good health and a solid week of training ahead of that final French Open gave him some hope, but the draw delivered Zverev in the best form of his life. Nadal said he had felt good enough to perhaps improve with each match, but the pairing didn’t allow for that. Given where his ranking stood, and the state of his health, the draws probably wouldn’t have helped him again.

And then the final data point came at the Olympics in a second-round match against Djokovic, his longtime foe. In their 60th meeting, Djokovic won 6-1, 6-4 in a match that wasn’t as close as even that scoreline implies.

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Just as with Hurkacz, Nadal was cold and clear-eyed in his assessment of what had unfolded on that afternoon. He knew where his tennis stood. Djokovic had controlled the court all day, playing from all the comfortable positions, punishing Nadal on his serve and taking away his legs, as Nadal had done to so many on that red dust for so long.

“He was much better than me,” Nadal said then.

He could have played on. In an individual sport, no one cuts you from the team. Especially not tennis, and especially not tennis with Nadal, whose tournaments would dole out wild card entries to him as long as he could ask for them. He could have spent the next year enduring beatings like the ones from Hurkacz and Zverev and Djokovic, then letting crowds across the globe fete him in his anguish.

He didn’t need that. As he put it back in the spring, he preferred to stay with all his amazing memories.

(Top photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images)

By now, you’ve seen it. A player makes a big catch or run for a first down or a touchdown. He jumps up, extends an arm, sticks out his index finger and raises his thumb to create an imaginary gun. Generally, the “shots” are fired downfield in the direction of no one in particular. But the flags still have followed for the unsportsmanlike conduct, which is a 15-yard penalty.

The NFL is sending the message that it is done with finger guns following eight penalties and fines on players for such celebrations in the first four weeks of the season. Two more players were flagged for finger gun motions, which the NFL considers a violent gesture, on Sunday. Week 5 fines will be announced Saturday afternoon.

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Drake London drew a flag and a fine in Week 2 for the gesture. In Week 3, New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers drew penalties twice for violent gestures. A pair of $14,069 fines followed. Five players — Dallas Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb, New Orleans Saints defensive backs Marshon Lattimore and Alontae Taylor, New York Jets wideout Allen Lazard and Washington Commanders running back Jeremy McNichols — in Week 4 were punished for the celebration.

The players were fined an average of $12,697.50 for those eight infractions. Cincinnati Bengals wideout Andrei Iosivas also was flagged and fined for unsportsmanlike conduct in Week 2, when he pantomimed shooting a bow and arrow following a touchdown against the Kansas City Chiefs, but he appealed the $5,305 fine and won.

Indianapolis Colts receiver Josh Downs earned a penalty for pointing downfield in Week 5, as did Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton. Yet Lamb and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster were not penalized for celebrating first-down plays with similar gestures in last week’s games, though that does not preclude eventual fines.

Slayton noted the officiating discrepancy on X.

It’s cool when they do it https://t.co/dOX1kb0Qap

— Darius Slayton (@Young_Slay2) October 8, 2024

The NFL’s rules on unsportsmanlike conduct are as follows:

There shall be no unsportsmanlike conduct. This applies to any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship. Such acts specifically include, among others: (a) Throwing a punch, or a forearm, or kicking at an opponent, even though no contact is made. (b) Using abusive, threatening, or insulting language or gestures to opponents, teammates, officials, or representatives of the League. (c) Using baiting or taunting acts or words that may engender ill will between teams. (d) Any violent gesture, or an act that is sexually suggestive or offensive.

London said he regretted his celebration, which mimed shooting a machine gun in the air. Three days prior, the Falcons had hosted the football team from Georgia’s Apalachee High School, where two students and two teachers were killed in a shooting on Sept. 4.

It may feel like a sudden crackdown, but NFL and team officials as well as players in NFLPA leadership roles say the league’s distaste for such acts is nothing new. The NFL has a long-running rule that discourages players from making any kind of violent gestures on the field. In addition to finger guns, this includes throat slashing and gang signs. In 2022, the league fined 13 Pittsburgh Steelers players $4,715 to $13,261 for a choreographed machine-gun-like interception celebration. In 2023, Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson and tight end David Njoku were both fined $13,569 for a gun-themed celebration. Those are just two examples from prior seasons.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association collectively bargain an on-field code of conduct for all players. Fines, per the NFL rulebook, “are donated to the Professional Athletes Foundation to support Legends in need and the NFL Foundation to further support the health, safety and wellness of athletes across all levels, including youth football and the communities that support the game.”

Two NFL directors of player development said the penalties and fines weren’t a new initiative or point of emphasis by the league, which has cracked down on taunting in recent seasons. Instead, they said, players have just begun using the finger guns celebration with greater frequency.

One high-ranking league employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t want to comment on any specific incident, said players are warned every year that such gestures will result in penalties and fines. The league shows a video to players each year instructing them on acceptable and unacceptable forms of celebration. The NFL rulebook, which is given every year to each player, also prohibits any gun-related salutes.

One league official said as such celebrations became popular in high school and college games, the NFL observed a trickle-up effect into its own games.

Among the violent gestures flagged in college football this season: Last week, South Carolina defensive end Dylan Stewart mimicked shooting a machine gun into Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart while the quarterback was still on the ground recovering from Stewart’s sack. In Week 1, on LSU’s first touchdown of the season, wide receiver Kyren Lacy pretended to shoot a gun at USC’s defense.

“We’re starting to see, I hate to say it, but more and more of it,” Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, told The Associated Press earlier this week. “We’re just trying to say that’s not acceptable. Gun violence is not acceptable in our game.”

Multiple NFL staff members keep a pulse on all aspects of the youth game, and the league remains conscientious about its messaging to a younger audience. Because of its players’ celebrity statuses, the NFL is mindful about curbing in-game violent gestures, and hopes the recent penalties and fines quickly force players to make a change.

As a second high-ranking NFL employee said when asked about the matter: “Non-negotiable. Find a different expression to celebrate.”

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Getty Images, Michael Owens / Associated Press, Leslie Plaza Johnson / Icon Sportswire)

Tom Brady, a surefire future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and arguably the greatest player in NFL history, could be on the precipice of NFL ownership.

Brady and businessman Tom Wagner, the co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management, came to an agreement with Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis to buy into the franchise last year. Their bid will be discussed at the NFL’s owners’ meetings on Tuesday in Atlanta, according to a league source. The league’s financial committee will review Brady’s bid, with a potential vote to follow.

Here’s an explainer of how Brady and the Raiders got here:

What is the process for Brady becoming a part-owner of the Raiders?

Brady and Wagner had to reach an agreement with Davis to purchase a minority stake in the franchise, which they did in May 2023. From there, the bid is reviewed by the NFL’s finance committee, which was formed last year and is composed of owners. The committee decides if the bid will proceed to a vote. If it does, the bid must be approved by 24 of the NFL’s 32 majority owners.

What would his ownership share be, and how much is he paying for it?

According to league sources, the agreement between Brady, Wagner and Davis is for a 10 percent stake in the Raiders. CNBC estimated the value of the Raiders to be $7.8 billion last month, but that doesn’t mean Brady and Wagner have to pay $780 million.

That’s because a valuation is based on the estimated price the Raiders would draw if Davis sold the entire stake. The price Brady and Wagner agreed on with Davis has not been disclosed, but it’ll likely be substantially less than 10 percent of the valuation of the Raiders.

How does one pay for, say, a 10 percent share of an NFL team? Does he have to come up with cash, or is it a payout over a longer period?

Brady and Wagner have to pay cash. If they don’t have the full amount on hand, they’ll have to take out a loan.

Why has the process taken so long?

It has taken some time to nail down the final price. According to The Washington Post, the NFL’s finance committee raised concerns last year that Davis was giving Brady and Wagner too much of a discount. The Post reported earlier this month that Brady and Wagner have since increased their offer to “far more money than originally proposed.”

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What would be different for Brady given his TV broadcasting career?

The NFL has already placed restrictions on Brady in his role as a Fox analyst. He’s not allowed access to other teams’ facilities and practices, nor can he attend broadcast production meetings, which usually include meetings with coaches and players ahead of games.

In the scenario that he’s approved as a minority owner, however, the restrictions would increase. According to an ESPN report in August, Brady wouldn’t be able to publicly criticize officials or other teams and could be fined or suspended if the league feels he breaks that policy. He would also have to abide by the league’s gambling and anti-tampering policies, and he would be limited to “strictly social communication” with members of other teams, per the report.

What is Brady’s connection to Raiders owner Mark Davis?

In January 2020, Brady attended UFC 246 and was photographed smiling while talking to Davis, whom he’d previously met, and then-Raiders executive Marcel Reece. The Raiders were moving to Las Vegas, while Brady was coming off what would be his final season with the New England Patriots. With Brady set to become an unrestricted free agent that March, rumors were swirling that he could potentially sign with the Raiders to replace then-starting quarterback Derek Carr.

The Raiders considered pursuing Brady, but then-coach Jon Gruden, who had personnel power, ultimately decided against it and stuck with Carr. Brady went on to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the Raiders’ flirtation was the start of a deeper relationship with Davis, who took over as head of the franchise following the death of his father, Al, in 2011.

In May 2022, Brady attended a Las Vegas Aces game. He caught up with Davis, who purchased the WNBA franchise in 2021, and expressed his admiration for what they were building. On the court, the team was thriving and en route to its first WNBA championship. From a fan base perspective, the Aces were regularly selling out games and drawing some of the best attendance numbers in the league.

“I think (Brady) was just really impressed with how far women’s basketball has come,” Davis told The Athletic last year. “And he was also impressed by the excitement and the enthusiasm of the crowd in Las Vegas.”

Shortly after the game, Brady’s representatives reached out to Davis and asked whether he would be willing to sell a minority stake in the Aces. In March 2023, the Aces announced that Brady had reached an agreement with Davis to become a minority owner. The purchase was approved by the WNBA’s other owners in October. The percentage of Brady’s stake and the amount he paid for it remain undisclosed.

“He knew that I was in it, and I think he just felt he wanted to be a part of it,” Davis said. “His people contacted me and we talked about it, and he became a partner.”

In May 2023, Davis told ESPN he had come to an agreement with Brady for the former quarterback to purchase a minority ownership stake in the Raiders.

“We’re excited for Tom to join the Raiders,” Davis told ESPN, “and it’s exciting because he will be just the third player in the history of the National Football League (after George Halas Sr. and Jerry Richardson) to become an owner.”

Mark Davis and Tom Brady attend UFC 246 in Las Vegas on Jan. 18, 2020. (Jeff Bottari / Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Why is Brady trying to purchase a share of the Raiders — and not the Patriots, Buccaneers or his hometown San Francisco 49ers?

It all starts with the existing business relationship between Brady and Davis. You can’t buy a stake in a team without an owner being willing to sell a portion of his or her stake and it’s unclear if that would’ve been possible with the Patriots, Buccaneers or 49ers. The Patriots, for one, are 100 percent owned by Robert Kraft and he told Fox Business in February 2023, “I’m never selling it. We’ve set it up so it hopefully stays in the family for many decades to come.”

It’s also possible Brady viewed the Raiders as a more attractive investment. Among the four aforementioned teams, only the Patriots — valued at $7.9 billion — are worth more than the Raiders, per CNBC’s estimation. Their report has the 49ers at $7.4 billion and the Bucs at $6.05 billion.

The report also suggests that the Raiders are generating more revenue than those three other teams. According to CNBC, the Raiders generated $780 million in revenue in the past year, which trails only the Dallas Cowboys ($1.22 billion) and Los Angeles Rams ($825 million). That, plus Davis being willing to sell, is likely part of the reason this came together.

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Does this mean Brady would have any sort of control of the Raiders?

No. To be considered a majority owner by the NFL, someone who buys into the franchise must acquire at least a 30 percent stake. At that point, they could have voting rights and team control. Because Brady and Wagner are purchasing only 10 percent of the Raiders, they won’t have control. That’s another reason why they won’t pay 10 percent of the valuation of the Raiders.

“If somebody buys what’s called a limited partnership share, they pay a much lower valuation because they don’t have any control,” a former NFL executive told The Athletic last month. “They’re basically just passive investors. It’d be like if you were selling the garage of your house. You wouldn’t sell it on a per-square-foot basis. Somebody would pay a lot less because they don’t own the house.”

How many other minority owners do the Raiders have?

Davis and his mother, Carol Davis, are listed as co-owners of the Raiders and own 47 percent of the franchise. That number would drop if Brady and Wagner’s bid is approved, but the Davis family would remain the principal owners. As of 2022, the NFL dropped the minimum percentage of a team that a longstanding owner must control from 5 percent to 1 percent for teams with the same owner for at least 10 years.

When the late Al Davis became principal owner in 1972, he founded a company called A.D. Football Inc. alongside eight partners. The original eight partners have passed, but their heirs became limited partners.

The Raiders 2024 media guide lists six other “interest holders” in the franchise: A. Boscacci, Jill Boscacci Lovingfoss, First Football, Winkenbach Family, Fox Football and Sargent Family.

Could Brady still return to play in the NFL as a part-owner?

No. NFL rules state that employees can’t own equity in a team unless they are family members of the team’s owner.

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What is the Raiders’ succession plan after Mark Davis? Could Brady eventually become the primary owner?

It’s unknown. Mark Davis, 69, has no siblings and is single with no children. Carol Davis is in her 90s. If they still have stakes in the franchise when they die, their ownership stakes could either be passed on to someone else in the family or sold.

Brady could attempt to purchase their stakes in the latter scenario. He could also attempt to purchase their stakes while they’re living — or those of the other limited partners. Not only would he need to cross the 30 percent threshold, but he’d also need to own more shares than Carol and Mark Davis to become the “controlling” owner. If Carol and Mark Davis ever decided to sell, there would likely be suitors beyond Brady.

“It’ll be a real ‘Game of Thrones’ when that happens,” a former NFL executive told The Athletic. “When something’s worth $1,000, there’s not a fight. When something’s worth $10 billion, it gets pretty ugly.”

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(Top illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Cooper Neill and Ethan Miller / Getty Images and Matthew Pearce / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)