Bucs QB Brady: “No Retirement In My Future”
Bucs quarterback Tom Brady spoke at length about a multitude of topics regarding Tampa Bay’s struggling offense on Thursday following the team’s disappointing 20-18 loss at Pittsburgh. During the final question of his press conference, Brady addressed his immediate future and provided an answer about whether he would consider retiring at midseason of a very difficult year, as NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms suggested he might on Pro Football Talk Live.
“That’s really why I’m here – I’m here to announce finally … that you guys (the media) have pushed me to the brink!” Brady laughed. “No, I think a lot of it for me is just us going out there … I love the sport and I love the teammates. And I want to go do a great job for this team like I always have. No retirement in my future.”
Brady and the Bucs are off to a surprising 3-3 start this year, and Tampa Bay’s sputtering offense, which is averaging just 20 points per game, is a big reason. That’s 10 points less than the last two years when the Bucs had one of the most prolific offenses in the league.
Simms Thinks Brady’s “Off-The-Field Stuff” Could Prompt Him To Walk Away From Bucs
Brady and his wife, Gisele Bündchen, are also reportedly beginning the process of a very public, high-profile divorce. That process caused Brady to miss 10 days of training camp back in August. Brady also missed Saturday’s walk-through in Pittsburgh because he spent Friday night attending the wedding of Patriots owner Robert Kraft and seeing his son, Jack, in New York.
Simms, a former Bucs QB, mentioned Brady’s “off-the-field stuff” when asked by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio whether Brady or Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers would be more likely to suddenly retire during the season. Green Bay is also 3-3.
“Normally I’d feel like it’s Rodgers that would be that guy,” Simms said. “But because of this year and some of the off-the-field stuff that’s hitting home and personal stuff with Brady, this is the one year I feel maybe it might be Brady.
“It seems like, and I don’t know this, that his wife is threatening divorce or going down that road by all due accounts of what you read. I think Rodgers is usually the guy to be more renegade and be like, ‘Screw this, I’m out of here.’ But this is a weird year where we’re seeing Brady do weird crap and having personal issues.”
Despite the Bucs’ struggles, Brady is having a good year statistically speaking. He’s completing 67.2 percent of his passes for 1,652 yards with eight touchdowns and just one interception. After throwing for a league-high 5,316 yards with 719 pass attempts and 43 touchdowns, which was a Bucs franchise record, in 2022, Brady is on pace to throw for 4,680 yards with just 22 touchdowns and two interceptions this year.
Brady didn’t elaborate further on his “no retirement in my future” comment on Thursday. He obviously meant that he wasn’t going retire during the 2022 season.
But will he play a 24th season at age 46 – and would he play in Tampa Bay? That is open for interpretation – and it’s a question for another day.
