It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Tom Brady feels his time within the NFL is waning. He retired last Feb. 1 before unretiring 40 days later. Despite the shortness of the hiatus, it’s the primary time the NFL world had seen Brady’s competitive fire flicker. He clearly feels it, too.
In an interview with Dan Patrick, Brady was uncharacteristically chatty about his mentality as a competitor and what is going to get him to finally hang up the cleats for good.
“I had the appetite to compete, and it will be gone soon,” he told Patrick. “I mean, there isn’t any doubt about it. I’ve got to only really appreciate the time I actually have left, because it is not so much.”
Unsurprisingly, Brady didn’t explicitly say he’s playing his last season this 12 months — however the writing is on the wall for the 44-year-old Buccaneers quarterback.
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Brady’s 2021 season ended on a disappointing note when the Buccaneers were bounced from the playoffs 30-27 by the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams. Brady, whose Bucs won the Super Bowl the 12 months before, retired shortly thereafter, but once he returned, the Buccaneers — who were considered reloading — immediately became Super Bowl favorites again.
Brady also talked with Patrick about his upcoming analyst role with Fox. He signed a 10-year deal price $375 million with the network.
“There’s loads of learning curve . . . obviously, it should be a very recent profession,” he told Patrick. “It is a recent opportunity for me to try something that I’ll work really hard to arrange to be nearly as good as I possibly may be, knowing that the day I walk on the set for the primary time won’t be my finest moment.”
Brady admitting in a single interview that his competitive fire will die out and that he’ll have growing pains is nothing in need of a miracle, but he appears to be accepting reality. He has had one in every of the slowest, most successful profession twilights not only within the NFL, but in all of sports.
He’ll look to shut out his profession in spectacular fashion with one last ride in Tampa. The Bucs have the second-lowest Super Bowl odds within the league in accordance with FanDuel Sportsbook.
