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Retirement talk could follow Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, 45, everywhere he goes this season.
Brady addressed the latest retirement rumors on Monday, September 12, during the “Let’s Go!” podcast, a day after the Bucs’ 19-3 season-opening win at Dallas. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported on Sunday, September 11, that sources who are familiar with Brady’s thinking believe the quarterback will retire after this season.
“I think for me, I’m just gonna take it day by day. I’ll evaluate everything as it comes,” Brady told podcast host Jim Gray. “One of these days, they’re gonna be right. I will say that. One of these days, if you make enough predictions and so forth, and I think we’ve all kind of talked about the predictions that have not come true.”
“But I think for me, the ability to play and love what I’m doing in Year 23 with a new group of teammates and a really committed team, it’s really fun for me,” Brady added. “And I still enjoy … I feel the joy. I feel the happiness. I feel the camaraderie.”
Brady also acknowledged that the end is near though, and his actions spoke heavily of in the offseason. He retired for 41 days during the offseason in February but returned to the Bucs in March. He also signed a $375 million deal to broadcast with FOX after he retires from football. His 11-day break from training camp led to retirement rumblings, too.
“I’m feeling more than things in the past for some reason,” Brady told Gray. “You know, I’m just really feeling intensely my emotions. And I feel like I always have that, but I think when you get close to the end — and I don’t know exactly where I’m at with that and there’s no decision to be made, it’s not like I have 10 years left. I definitely don’t have that. So all these, I just am never gonna take for granted, you know?”
Brady Faces Reality Check
Brady acknowledged that he felt the pain from the Dallas game the next morning. He endured a couple of sacks and a plethora of hits.
“There’s no margin for error when you’re 45,” Brady told Gray. “You know, you take hits and you feel every hit. When you’re younger, your body’s a lot different. And when you’re 45, your body changes a lot.”
“And you look at your arm and you got bruises, you got cuts,” Brady added. “And you go, ‘OK, how much longer do I want to make this commitment?’ And I obviously made the commitment for this year and everything’s going to be like always — continue to evaluate all these different aspects of playing.”
Brady’s Price of Longevity
Brady also told Gray about how much he has missed off the field through 22 seasons, going on 23.
“I haven’t had a Christmas in 23 years and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving in 23 years,” Brady said. “I haven’t celebrated birthdays with people that I care about that are, you know, born from August to late January. And you know, I’m not able to be at funerals and I’m not able to be at weddings.”
“And I think there comes a point in your life where you say, you know what? I had my fill and it’s enough and time to go on, to move into other parts of life, which, you know, I push myself to the max and I, I got everything I could outta my ability and I hope that everybody gets everything they can out of their doing,” Brady added.
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