Tom Brady’s 2005 retirement admission shows why NFL return remains on the cards
When Tom Brady announced his retirement at the start of February, it appeared to be a definitive end to his storied NFL career.
No player in NFL history has achieved what Brady has during his 22-year career which saw him hoist the Lombardi Trophy a whopping seven times.
Six of those Super Bowl trophies came with the New England Patriots with his seventh coming with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 2021.
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However, while Brady, who endured a tumultuous 2022 season both on and off the field, now looks to have finally hung up his cleats, it would not be the first time the 45-year-old has u-turned on his decision to quit the NFL.
Just last year, Brady retired following Tampa’s NFC Divisional play-off defeat to the Los Angeles Rams before reversing his decision just two months later.
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(Image: Getty Images)
It was a decision that reportedly put intense strain upon his relationship with ex-wife Gisele Bundchen, who divorced from Brady back in 2022. This time around though, his decision looks to be final, with Brady taking to Instagram to state he was “retiring, for good.”
However, there’s no doubt Brady can still play. While he is 45, Brady can still sling a football around with his arm showing no signs of regression. Should he decided to return, he will be a free agent after his contract with Tampa Bay expired meaning he can choose wherever he wants to play.
(Image: Getty Images)
The Las Vegas Raiders were rumoured to have interest in Brady, which could have seen him reunited with former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
And in an interview back in 2005, Brady revealed the end of his playing career scared him, which could offer some insight into the former quarterbacks thinking should he decided to play for one more season.
“The end of my playing career,” Brady told 60 Minutes back in 2005 when asked what scared him.
“Big time, because, I guess I’ve done this for so long, I know how I feel in the off-season, that I’m always trying to figure out ways to have a day that’s filled with things I like to do and when I’m playing football during those seven months out of the year, it’s easy when you get up and come in here and not that it’s easy to work, not that it’s easy to show up every day and do the job but you’re focussed.
(Image: Steve Luciano/AP/REX/Shutterstock)
(Image: @TomBrady/Twitter)
“You’ve got a goal, you’ve got something you’re trying to accomplish, and when that’s done, you don’t have 80,000 people screaming your name, what it’s going to be? I mean I don’t know.
“I’ve heard a lot about astronauts who go to the moon and come back and they’re so depressed because there’s nothing they can do in their lives that ever can fill in the way that that does.”
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