Tom Brady shocked the world not only when he suddenly retired but also when he announced his return 40 days later.
What triggered the sudden change of heart in his decision to return to the NFL had not been discussed until a roundtable after Capital One’s The Match with Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
Brady decided to come out of retirement after feeling pressure from free agency. However, the indecision stemmed from commitments he has off the field: his family.
“At this stage, it’s like 55% yes and 45% no. It’s not 100-0. That’s just the reality,” Brady said. “It’s not that I’m not 100% committed, it’s just as soon as I make the commitment to do it, it’s like ‘Ugh. All right, here we go.’ It’s like running a marathon. You can’t decide two weeks before the marathon, ‘Hey, I’m going to start running.’ We got right to free agency and I felt some pressure to do it and talked to the team and organization, and it all worked out.”
He later added that he was “partly“ ready to retire. Brady will turn 45 in August, and he said, “I think when you’re their [Mahomes and Allen's] age, if you were to ask me, ‘Are you going to play football next year?’ I would say there’s a 100% chance I’m playing. And I think as I’ve gotten older, that’s changed because I have other responsibilities.
“So the responsibilities are many people taking care of me and things that I have off the field that are really important to me like my family, my kids, my wife’s done an amazing job of that. That’s a big commitment from her, so it’s harder when you get older. I don’t even think they know what’s coming. Aaron [Rodgers] knows these things because your life gets bigger as we all do, our life gets more full—there’s more responsibilities.”
The legendary quarterback remains under contract with Tampa Bay through the end of the upcoming season, and he will be an unrestricted free agent come next offseason.
