Old-timers (like myself) still carry a torch for the celebrated likes of Bill Russell, Ted Williams, and Bobby Orr, but the truth is that Tom Brady clinched the trophy three years ago when he won his sixth Super Bowl for the Patriots at the age of 41.

Brady, who announced his retirement Tuesday morning, goes down as the greatest athlete in the long, storied history of Boston sports.

Russell forever will be our most prodigious winner: 11 championships in 13 seasons. Teddy Ballgame was the greatest hitter who ever lived. Orr is the best to ever lace up skates.

But Tom Brady is Boston’s Zeus . . . A-No. 1 . . . Top of the List . . . King of the Hill . . . Capo di Tutti Capi of all who played sports for New England teams.

When the first reports (only slightly premature) of Brady hanging up his cleats broke Saturday afternoon in the middle of a major New England blizzard, a 32-year-old Boston sports lifer from Saugus named Jared Carrabis tweeted, “David Ortiz got voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and Tom Brady retired from the NFL within four days of each other. That officially closes the book on my childhood.’’

Exactly.

Brady was the best player in the most important sport of the 21st century, and his career framed the fan experience in Boston in the new millennium. New England was in a 16-year championship drought when Brady & Co. pulled off a Super Bowl upset for the ages in New Orleans 20 years ago.

That victory broke the dam and kick-started a championship surge never seen in any other American city. New England’s teams won 12 titles between 2002 and 2019, bookended by Tom’s first and last for the Patriots. In a stretch of six years and four months, the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins all won championships. No American municipality had ever experienced anything like it. The feat is unlikely to ever be matched.

Carrabis, who grew up to be a media star at Barstool Sports, represents a generation of young, spoiled New England fans who came of age when Brady and Bill Belichick got things going in Foxborough. I have three adult children who were born in the 1980s (I remember a pack of middle schoolers running around the neighborhood in boxer shorts on a cold February evening after Adam Vinatieri split the uprights in the Superdome) and spent considerable time reminding them that it wasn’t always like this around here.

The 21st century is the High Renaissance of Boston sports, and Brady was our Michelangelo. He changed our image and our expectations as we went from Loserville to Title Town.

After what Brady and Friends did to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, we came to expect sudden victory instead of crushing, last-second defeat. Tom Brady paved the way for the Red Sox miracle of 2004, for Kevin Garnett & Co. showing us that “anything’s possible,’’ and for Tim Thomas standing on his head in Vancouver in 2011.

In an era of salary caps and commissioner-driven parity, Brady drove the bus for two Patriot dynasties: three Super Bowl championships in four years between 2002 and 2005, then three more Super Bowl wins and four appearances over five seasons from 2015-19.

As a Patriot, Brady appeared in nine Super Bowls, and won 16 division titles, 30 of 41 playoff games, and three league MVPs. And that’s without even getting into his post-Patriot career, when he won another Super Bowl and almost won an MVP at the age of 44.

Brady won his last Patriot championship17 years after his first one. He won in a century when pro football was far more popular than any other sport. He became the greatest football player of all time playing for a Patriot team that emerged as more popular than the Bruins, Celtics, or Red Sox ever were.

And now it’s over. Tom Brady has met the death that awaits all athletes. He has decided to retire from football.

His numbers speak for themselves.

Boston’s other sports gods speak for Brady.

“Boston’s had a lot of great ones,’’ Carl Yastrzemski told me in 2018. “Larry, Ted, Russell, Bobby Orr. Don’t forget Big Papi. But right now, because of all the Super Bowls that he’s won, I’ve got to go with Tom Brady. Without a doubt.’’

“You could feel it when the Patriots were behind [28-3] in the Super Bowl,’’ Orr said. “You just knew it wasn’t over. Look at the last drives, and Tommy executes them. I think Bill Belichick’s a genius, but Brady’s the guy that steers it and runs the ship.’’

Orr added that same year, “Tommy will go down as the greatest athlete in Boston history. Look at what he has done. It’s just unbelievable. There is no argument.’’

Who are we to argue with No. 4?

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.