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Less than a week after retiring from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tom Brady maintains that it’s time for him to hang it up but he says that he can still play.
“There’s always gonna be a part [of me] that wants to play and a part of me that, you know, feels like I can play,” Brady told co-host Jim Gray on the “Let’s Go!” podcast on Monday, February 6. “I think there’s just a decision to know that it’s the right time.”
“So I think for me it’s more of just, it’s gonna end at some point, and I think now’s the time. And it’s not that I can’t do it. It’s not that I wouldn’t want to do it. It’s not that I wouldn’t be excited to play,” Brady added. “I love playing football. I’ve loved playing football since I was a kid on the street on Portola Drive. So I think it’s just a decision that it’s time to do other things.”
Brady announced his retirement on February 1 via Instagram after 23 seasons in the league. He notably retired on the same date last year but changed course and returned to the Bucs after 40 days for another season.
This time around, Brady said it’s “for good”, and he said on a previous “Let’s Go!” podcast in December 2022 that he planned to make his second retirement permanent. With that said, Brady won’t start his FOX broadcasting career until 2024, which leaves 2023 open.
“You know, I’ve done it once before, so I’ve gotta figure this out and get good at this actually,” Brady joked with Gray about retirement. “It’s all pretty new.”
Brady Conflicts With Previous Retirement Comment
Gray also pointed out that Brady’s decision to retire doesn’t match a previous comment, “when I suck, I’ll retire” during the podcast. Brady and the Bucs went 8-9, but he set a single-season record for completions and finished third in passing yards in 2022.
“That’s true,” Brady told Gray about that quote. “I did say that. And I meant it at the time. That was so long ago. I missed a few things in the meantime and certainly just have loved every experience that I’ve had doing it and doesn’t always go right, and I always tell this to my kids a lot, you know, it’s not about whether you win or lose, it’s about the process of trying to get the most out of yourself.”
“And if you feel like you’ve done it then there’s a lot to be gained from it. And if you feel like you cheated that, then you feel like you’ve cheated yourself,” Brady added. “And I think I’ve always wanted to maximize my ability as a player and now I get to maximize my ability in life as a person and as a human and as a man and as a father and as a son and as a brother and as a friend and as a teammate to different things going forward. So there’s a lot of things to be excited about.”
Brady: “There’s a Lot of Emotions”
Regardless of whether or not Brady changes his mind again on retirement, parting ways with playing professional football won’t come easy.
“There’s a lot of emotions,” Brady told Gray. “You know, I think relief just because there’s a little bit of a decompression/depressurization.”
Brady’s season ended three weeks ago, which ended not just his 23rd NFL season but three decades of organized football, counting college and high school.
“For, you know, 32 years you’ve been getting ready to prepare for another season, and I think the reality of that probably hasn’t even sunk in yet,” Brady added. “So I don’t know how I’ll feel as those moments get closer to a degree, but I’m really happy and content with kind of where we’re at.”
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