Tom Brady to Return to NFL One Month After Announcing Retirement

Tom Brady is back in the NFL. After announcing his retirement from the league in February, the seven-time Super Bowl champion went to social media to reveal he is returning to action this fall. Brady will play in his 23rd season and be the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

"These past two months I've realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands," Brady wrote on Twitter. "That time will come. But it's not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I'm coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa. Unfinished business LFG." 

After Brady announced his retirement, he teased that he could make a return to the NFL. Earlier this month when Brady appeared at the Seminole Pro-Member golf tournament, he was asked if his Let's Go! Sirius XM show was the only job he has right now. "To be determined," Brady said. "A lot of things going on. Today, it's golf." 

But why is Brady coming back after making a long statement about calling it a career? It could be the fact that he can still play at a high level at 44 years old, throwing for over 5,000 yards this past season. Additionally leaving a game that he's been playing professionally for 22 years isn't easy to walk away from. Last year, PopCulture.com spoke to Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana about how retiring from the NFL was difficult for him. 

"It was very difficult," said Montana, who played 13 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and two with the Kansas City Chiefs. "The first two or three years were very hard. You sit there are go, 'Did I make the right decision?' [You] question yourself because there's no going back to it once you called it a day. It's really hard to have someone else give that opportunity back again. When you look at those guys, there's no pickup games to go to. Watching every Sunday is hard because you figure you should still be there. It was a tough transition the first couple of years."  

Brady played his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots and led the team to nine Super Bowl appearances with six Super Bowl wins. He joined the Buccaneers in 2020 and led the team to a Super Bowl win that season. Brady has also been named Super Bowl MVP five times, NFL MVP three times and selected to the Pro Bowl 15 times.