Tom Brady Explains Why He ‘Felt Pressure’ to Come out of Retirement

Tom Brady was ready to call it an NFL career when he announced his retirement in February. But 40 days after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback decided to move on from the game of football, Brady announced he’s coming back to play at least one more season. During a roundtable conversation with NFL quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen during TNT’s The Match, Brady revealed why he felt the pressure to come back.

“At this stage, it’s like 55% yes and 45% no,” Brady said, per ESPN.  “It’s not 100-0. That’s just the reality. It’s not that I’m not 100% committed, it’s just as soon as I make the commitment to do it, it’s like, ‘Ugh. All right, here we go.’ It’s like running a marathon. You can’t decide two weeks before the marathon, ‘Hey, I’m going to start running.’ We got right to free agency and I felt some pressure to do it and talked to the team and organization, and it all worked out.”

Brady was then asked if he had been ready to retire. “Partly, you know, yes,” Brady said. “And I think when you’re their [Mahomes’ and Allen’s] age, if you were to ask me, ‘Are you going to play football next year?’ I would say there’s a 100% chance I’m playing. And I think as I’ve gotten older, that’s changed because I have other responsibilities. So the responsibilities are many people taking care of me and things that I have off the field that are really important to me like my family, my kids; my wife’s done an amazing job of that. That’s a big commitment from her, so it’s harder when you get older.”

Brady will be a free agent following the 2022 season. It’s not clear what his plans will be after this year, but if the seven-time Super Bowl champion continues to play at a high level, he could play another season. If that happens, it could be with another team since he won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in 2020. But Brady also has another job waiting for him as he was named the lead analyst for NFL games at Fox Sports.