Tom Brady Breaks Silence on Multiple Retirement Reports

Tom Brady has set the record straight on whether he’s retiring from the NFL or not. On Monday evening, the Tampa Bay Bay Buccaneers quarterback talked about his NFL status on the Let’s Go! podcast with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald. Brady said he has not made a decision yet despite multiple reports saying that he plans to retire. 

“I’m still going through the process that I said I was going through,” Brady said per NFL com. “Sometimes it takes some time to really evaluate how you feel, what you want to do and I think when the time is right I’ll be ready to make a decision one way or the other.”  

On Friday night, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reported that Brady is planning to retire and an announcement was coming soon. ESPN confirmed the report on Saturday as well as the NFL Network. But then conflicting reports began to come out, and Brady told the Buccaneers he hasn’t made a decision. 

“I understand the advance speculation about Tom’s future,” Brady’s agent Don Yee said in a statement. Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what’s being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy. He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well as anybody, so that should be soon.”

Brady will likely make a decision relatively quickly so the Buccaneers know what they need to do going forward. At the same time, Brady doesn’t want to take away from what the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams are doing as they are getting ready to play in the Super Bowl. But no matter what happens, Brady has put together a memorable career as he has won seven Super Bowls, five Super Bowl MVP awards and three NFL MVP awards. 

Last week, Brady wrote a message to his fans. “I always want to win, I think that’s pretty apparent by now, but that doesn’t mean I equate losing to failure, especially when you go out fighting the way we did,” Brady wrote. “There’s so much to appreciate in a season like this when you’re surrounded by a team that believes in each other, and plays for the people standing on either side of them. I’ll spare you the Man in the Arena quote, but that feeling is something that I promise I’ll never take for granted. To everyone that was a part of it this year, thank you. I love you all!”