Tom Brady Reveals Why He Won’t Set Retirement Date

Tom Brady caught everyone off-guard when he announced his retirement from the NFL and then unretired 40 days later. So when will the seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback really call it quits? Brady recently spoke to Variety and explained why he won’t set a retirement date. 

 “I would say it’s year to year: Could this be my last year? Absolutely. Could I change my mind? Absolutely. I’ve realized I don’t have five years left,” Brady said. “I want to do it my way. I want to give it everything I got and see where I’m at. My body feels really good. I’ve had a lot of traumatic injuries over the years, but if things go really smoothly and we win, that’d be great.”

Brady will play at least one more season with the Buccaneers and will do everything he can to win his eighth Super Bowl. And as big as that would be for the 44-year-old, he has nothing to prove since he’s accomplished more than any other player in NFL history. And that makes his retirement announcement in February not too surprising despite being able to play at a high level. 

“I made the decision in the moment, and I felt it was the right thing for the team to let the Bucs know,” Brady said. “You need time to plan. And then through conversations with Bruce [Arians, the team’s former coach], Jason [Licht, general manager] and my wife, I felt like I could still play and compete.

“And it’s not that I’m any less committed once I say that it’s a yes, but I’ve got a 14-year-old son who lives in New York City — he wants time. My wife, she’s been incredibly supportive of my career over a long period of time. So I had to talk with her, you know what I mean? Those decisions get made with me as a family. And I have two younger kids, one 12 and one 9 — everyone’s got challenging lives.” Last season, Brady finished the 2021 season with a career-high 5,316 passing yards and 42 touchdowns with a 102.1 passer rating. He led the team to the divisional round of the playoffs but lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.