Tom Brady wants all you skeptics craning your neck hoping he reverses his retirement announcement to know that you’re wasting your time. Go pick up a hobby. Make some more of that pandemic lockdown sourdough bread. The only way you’re seeing Brady in uniform next season is in Aaron Rodgers’ ayahuasca-fueled nightmares.
During an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Robin Lundberg, Brady was grilled on the topic and didn’t appear to equivocate on retirement.
“What’s your message to those fans, the media, whoever it is, that’s constantly concocting a way for you to come back?” Lundburg asked.
Brady stuck a fork in those comeback rumors with his answer.
“I’m certain I’m not playing again so. I’ve tried to make that clear. I hate to continue to profess that because I’ve already told people that lots of times. I’m looking forward to my broadcasting job at FOX next year. I’m looking forward to the opportunity I have with the Raiders. We’re in the process of that, along with the other different things that I’m a part of professionally. And in my personal life, just spending as much time with my kids as I can. And seeing them grow up, and support the different things that they have going on. That’s a very important job.”
Brady has been linked to the Raiders before
Throwing Brady’s name into any contentious quarterback competition is the reflexive move of 2023, but the retired athlete comeback tour is one we’ve seen a million times before. Letting go is a challenge, but with that said, most athletes yearning to return are a decade younger than the 46-year-old Brady.
However, health complications that may keep the Raiders’ presumed 2023 starter Jimmy Garoppolo sidelined for the beginning of 2023 have raised questions about Vegas’ predicament under center. Those revelations have coincided with Brady becoming a new minority owner of the Raiders. As a result of his proximity and the undying rumors that a deal was nearly brokered to bring him to Vegas in 2020 before he signed on the dotted line with Tampa Bay, his name has been mentioned as a temporary seatholder in the Raiders quarterback room.
Of course, Brady brought all this on himself. He has been known to unretire before. In case you forgot, Brady briefly retired for a few weeks in 2022. But that was allegedly merely a ruse so he could execute an elaborate backdoor coup of Tua Tagovailoa and Brian Flores on the Dolphins last spring. Part one of that plan was to become a minority owner of the Miami Dolphins. Brady recently became a Raiders minority owner, but the situation in Vegas is different.
OK, but surely this time is different because Jimmy G is firmly entrenched after the starter, not Brady. Except for the fact that Garoppolo is notoriously injury-prone and underwent foot surgery in March after securing the bag with Las Vegas. All that is good and well, but a nine-figure contract with Fox for his insights from the booth might make things difficult. Except he doesn’t hop into Fox’s catbird seat until 2024.
As long as Brady is without a full-time job, observers will speculate. The thing Garoppolo has going for him is that he’s got a backstop in head coach Josh McDaniels, who was Brady’s offensive coordinator in New England for nearly a decade. On second thought, maybe there is smoke to this fire after all.
Follow DJ Dunson on Twitter: @cerebralsportex
