It was hard to blame Tom Brady when he announced his retirement earlier this year after 22 legendary seasons in the NFL.
It also didn’t feel like much of a surprise when he announced 41 days later that he was coming back for another year.
Brady’s return put the expectations for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season back in the Super Bowl range, but at 4-5 so far this year, they’ve obviously fallen well short of those lofty projections.
Off the field, Brady has also had to navigate a challenging personal situation, recently confirming his divorce from his wife of 13 years, Gisele Bündchen.
During his press conference in Munich on Friday, Brady was asked whether or not he had any regrets about his decision to return to football this year, and his answer was emphatic.
“Zero, no,” Brady said. “Definitely not. I returned because I felt like I wanted to compete and I spoke to the team about it and they were excited to have me back. I don’t really regret those types of things – I think when I commit to it, I mean it and I do my best and try to give everything I can to this particular opportunity.”
“I think the frustrating part is we just haven’t played to the way we’re capable of playing – that’s for a number of different reasons,” Brady continued, shifting the focus to the task at hand Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. “This is a very important game for us – we have a bye week after this. It gives you a chance to kind of evaluate where you’re at and I’d much rather evaluate being 5-5 than being 4-6. We’ve got to just win this game and it’ll take care of that. Seattle is going to challenge us – they have very talented players, good skill players, they’re good on defense…they’re creating a lot of sacks and turnovers. It’s a very good team – it’s going to be a very tough, hard-nosed game.”
Brady and the Tampa Bay offense have dealt with struggles all year long, from serious injuries to key players, to poor execution. The GOAT even called out his team’s lack of effort on game day recently, and doubled down on those comments Friday.
“What can we control? We can certainly control our attitude, our effort,” Brady said. “I think everything has been below the line this year – we’re 4-5…I don’t think there’s any reason to be happy about anything we’ve done. Obviously, we’re not playing to our standards – we’re not there from an effort standpoint, execution standpoint, emotional standpoint. We’ve got to figure it out – this is a good place to do it.”
Even through all their struggles so far this season, Brady and the Bucs are still in first place in the NFC South heading into this week, and got some help Thursday night from the Carolina Panthers, who beat the second-place Atlanta Falcons to create some distance at the top of the standings.
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