Tom Brady is the most accomplished player in NFL history.
The 44-year-old has poured everything he has into the game for the past two decades. Brady is a seven-time Super Bowl champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, three-time league MVP, 15-time Pro Bowler and the list goes on.
After all the wear-and-tear — Brady finished the 2021 season with 5,316 yards, 43 touchdowns and only 12 interceptions. He led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a playoff run after winning the Super Bowl with his new team in 2020. There’s just nothing else Brady needs to do to prove himself.
And, it appears that he is finally recognizing that.
On his “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray, Brady went into depth about his playing career and how his family is impacting his decision to potentially retire.
“I think as I’ve gotten older, I think the best part is, is football is extremely important in my life, and it means a lot to me, and I care a lot about what we’re trying to accomplish as a team and I care a lot about my teammates,” Brady said, transcribed by ESPN. “The biggest difference now that I’m older is I have kids now, too, you know, and I care about them a lot as well. They’ve been my biggest supporters. My wife is my biggest supporter. It pains her to see me get hit out there. And she deserves what she needs from me as a husband, and my kids deserve what they need from me as a dad.
“I’m gonna spend some time with them and give them what they need, ’cause they’ve really been giving me what I need the last six months to do what I love to do. I said this a few years ago, it’s what relationships are all about. It’s not always what I want. It’s what we want as a family. And I’m gonna spend a lot of time with them and figure out in the future what’s next.”
Brady has three kids and they’re either in, or about to be in their teenage years. He also has his wife Gisele Bundchen, who has expressed over the years that she’s ready for him to retire.
His family is a good enough reason to retire, but he also acknowledged that he’s proud of the way he finished the 2021 season with his team.
“I would say I’m proud and satisfied of everything we accomplished this year, so I know when I give it my all, that’s something to be proud of,” Brady said. “And I’ve literally given everything I had this year, last year, the year before that, the year before that. Like, I don’t leave anything half-ass, you know? I think I leave it with everything that I have. My physical being, I work really hard on that. I feel like I give everything I can to my teammates. Although, it is divided attention as you get older, ’cause there’s different priorities and responsibilities in life. And, you know, I have things happening outside of football that require some time and energy.
“Every year I just have to make sure that I have the ability to commit to what the team really needs, and that’s really important to me. The team doesn’t deserve anything less than my best. And if I feel like I’m not committed to that, or I can’t play at a championship level, then you gotta give someone else a chance to play. And, you know, we’ll see. There’s a long time between now and the start of next football season. I’ve gotta really figure those things out, which is probably natural for anyone. And at the same time, I would say this, we never know what’s gonna happen in the future. We really don’t. I mean, Kobe Bryant, a friend of ours, God rest his soul. You think you’re gonna live forever. We’re not. We think we’re gonna play forever. We’re not. What can we do? We can enjoy the moments that we have.
“As challenging as the season was, I was glad I played and glad I participated, ’cause I’m living my life and I’m not just counting the days. So my days are meaningful to me. I’m gonna try to keep ’em meaningful to me. And, you know, in the meantime I’m gonna do as best I can to enjoy, you know, the time that I have not playing football. ‘Cause that’s equally important. Playing football I get so much joy from. I love it. But not playing football, there’s a lot of joy in that for me also now, too, with my kids getting older and seeing them develop and grow. So all these things need to be considered and they will be. And, you know, the funny part is always that most guys retire and then move to Florida. I’m already in Florida. So it’s really confusing, even to me.”
Brady said he wouldn’t want a farewell tour and explained why it wouldn’t be beneficial for his focus on the game.
“I think that would be distracting for me. … My enjoyment comes from not a recognition of kind of what I’ve accomplished as a player in the league — my enjoyment comes from the competition,” Brady said. “More so than anything, even yesterday, I was thinking about competing. I was thinking about, this whole year, about competing. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than that.
“So when the time comes to think about post-career and second career, I’ll think about those things. It’s just when you’re 44, I guess you get asked about that a lot. And a lot of people thought I was done playing football in 2015. A lot of people in 2016 said, ‘You’re done.’ A lot of people in 2018, and when I left the Patriots, they said, ‘You’re done.'”
Brady has a lot to consider, and he will be extremely intentional in making a decision that makes sense for him and his family.
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