Getty Tom Brady remains retired amid comeback speculation.
Tom Brady staying retired looks like a forgone conclusion, but former New England Patriots executive Jason Licht indicated that it could be different.
Currently the Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager, Licht informed reporters that the former Patriots and Bucs quarterback is still in touch with the organization. Licht previously held director player personnel roles plus scouting jobs with the Patriots between 2002 and 2001.
“I know he still keeps in touch with a lot of players,” Licht told reporters on Tuesday, July 25. “I kept in touch with him — still do.”
Brady retired on February 1 after a 23-year career with Bucs and Patriots. He has been immersed in family and business endeavors since then.
It also confirms Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr.‘s recent comments about talks with Brady during the “Richard Sherman Podcast” this month. Sherman, who also played with Brady and the Bucs in 2021, concurred that a return is possible.
“I’m sure we’re still reaching out to him trying to see if he’s trying to come back to the team,” Winfield told Sherman. “Hey, it could happen. Anything’s possible.”
“It’s up in the air, man,” Winfield later clarified with Sherman.
Whether or not that translates to a potential second comeback remains to be seen. Brady previously retired and unretired in 2022 with the Bucs, but he did that in a 41-day span between February and March.
This Tom Brady video ahead of his Patriots homecoming is 🔥
(via @TomBrady)
Brady began his career with the Patriots in 2000 as a sixth-round draft pick out of Michigan and led the team to six Super Bowl wins. He joined the Bucs in 2020 as a free agent and won another Super Bowl that season with the team.
New England will honor Brady during the Week 1 opener against the Philadelphia Eagles at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.
The Light Grows Dimmer For a Tom Brady Comeback
Licht said last year that he would leave a “light on” for Brady, but this year in February, Licht showed less confidence in a return. Bucs wide receiver Chris Godwin confirmed the latter with a comment about being surprised if Brady would come back again during “The Rich Eisen Show” recently.
“I honestly, I think that’s pretty funny,” Godwin told Eisen. “I’d be very surprised if he came out of retirement again, like, he put me down but I’d be very, very shocked.”
Godwin played three seasons with Brady in Tampa. The former Penn State star has been linked to the Patriots in 2021 before he inked his current deal with the Bucs.
New NFL Rule Complicates Tom Brady-Raiders Plans
Brady looked at part-ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders this offseason, but that now faces a major hurdle.
“NFL owners voted last week to prohibit non-family employees from taking equity in teams, citing six potential problems with those arrangements they would prefer to avoid as the value of their assets soar,” Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fischer reported.
According to NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, that means Brady can’t take on ownership as a former player. Raiders owner Mark Davis spoke against the NFL’s “distribution of equity to players and other employees” and that he wanted to “employ Brady” and sell “a piece of the team”, Florio wrote.