Tom Brady has decided where he wants to play in 2020. After months of speculation, the six-time Super Bowl champion has signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, making the news official in an Instagram post on Friday, March 20. In the photo shared to his verified account, the 42-year-old is all smiles as he is seen signing paperwork, making the controversial move all the more official.
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“Excited, humble and hungry …if there is one thing I have learned about football, it’s that nobody cares what you did last year or the year before that…you earn the trust and respect of those around through your commitment every single day,” Brady captioned a photo of himself smiling as he paged through a document. “I’m starting a new football journey and thankful for the [Buccaneers] for giving me an opportunity to do what I love to do. I look forward to meeting all my new teammates and coaches and proving to them that they can believe and trust in me…I have always believed that well done is better than well said, so I’m gonna not gonna say much more – I’m just gonna get to work! #Year1.”
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Brady has been with the Patriots since 2000 and this was the first time he’s tested the free-agent market. On Tuesday, the father-of-three announced he was leaving the Patriots and signing with another team. Last year, Brady talked about his future in New England and said he wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
“That is the great part for me — I don’t know,” Brady said on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show back in October. “I think that has been a unique situation that I have been in because I think when you commit to a team for a certain amount of years, you kinda feel like (there is) the responsibility to always fulfill the contract. For me, it’s been good because I am just taking it day by day and I am enjoying what I have. I don’t know what the future holds and the great part is for me, football at this point is all borrowed time.
“I never expected to play 20 years and I am playing on a great team and it’s just been an incredible 20 years of my life. To play for Mr. Kraft, and Jonathan and the Kraft family and for Coach Belichick and to have so much success is a dream come true.”
When the 2019 season ended, there was speculation about Brady retiring due to his age and what he accomplished in his career. He made it clear that he still has some football left in him.
“In both life and football, failure is inevitable,” Brady wrote on Instagram in January. “You don’t always win. You can, however, learn from that failure, pick yourself up with great enthusiasm, and place yourself in the arena again. And that’s right where you will find me. Because I know I still have more to prove.”
Brady may still have more to prove, but he’s already accomplished more than any player in NFL history. Along with the six Super Bowl wins, Brady has played in a total of nine Super Bowls, has won the Super Bowl MVP award four times and he’s a three-time MVP winner.
