Tom Brady retirement rumors are circulating because — well we don’t know but don’t believe the hype.
When a legend is aware of their status, two things can happen. Either they quietly play it down and continue forging ahead with their head down, or lean all the way into it and embrace everything that comes with it.
Tom Brady has managed to uniquely exist between these planes. As brilliant as he is on the field, he’s equally effective at making sure his image away from football is that of a quiet gentleman. He’s created a walking contradiction of a superstar, someone who will dodge any controversial question asked while doing things like destroying potentially damning cell phone evidence. He won’t rock the boat, but will also prominently feature a Donald Trump hat in his locker without making a single mention of it.
He’s simple, yet confusing. That’s why when we hear a rumor that he may or may not be committed to playing for the New England Patriots in 2018, we both believe it while categorically denying it. Such a thing absolutely fits his brand.
Let’s set the record straight: Brady is not going to retire. There is no chance in hell that the greatest quarterback of this generation quietly hangs it up in the middle of April. There’s even less a chance when considering that quarterback is nothing if not the most self-important superstar in sports.
The idea that someone like Brady — who’s every move is ultra-calculated — is going to let it leak out through anonymous sources that he’s retiring seems a bit weird. It also seems totally believable, especially for someone as mysterious and private as Brady.
And that’s how we’ve arrived here. Because Brady is both the most visible face in football yet also it’s most socially elusive, this report holds some water. It doesn’t, however, hold much.
Brady has said time and time again that he plans on playing well into his late-40s, perhaps even until he is half-a-century old. New England has made moves to appease his ego and desire to play into the winter of his middle-aged years.
He’s also fiercely competitive, which is something we tend to forget when looking at the dopey Ugg ads or while fighting over his ‘MAGA’ hat placement. Brady’s egotistical strive for greatness might have handcuffed the Patriots’ future, as he is seen as playing a large role in the team trading away Jimmy Garappolo. It’s not unreasonable to think that he’s using this retirement leak to put pressure on the Patriots to not draft his successor this year, thus setting up an exit plan for him that he didn’t author himself.
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That ferocious competitiveness is also why Brady won’t walk away, not now. He watched Peyton Manning retire after winning his second Super Bowl, and you have to believe that he was thinking to himself ‘that, but except it’s my sixth ring’. That’s the way this narrative deserves to end, not with a limp farewell wave in the summer months.
Winning a sixth Super Bowl ring and then politely putting the mic down is too perfect — too Brady — to not happen. That’s the apotheosis of his legend, and peak Brady that we all deserve.