Tom Brady Teases Playing in NFL Until He’s 50

Is Tom Brady ready to play in the NFL at the age of 50? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback just turned 44 and is coming off a seventh Super Bowl win. And he’s off to a good start to the 2021 season, throwing for 379 yards and four touchdowns in the Buccaneers’ 31-29 win over the Dallas Cowboys last week. In the Buccaneer’s video series Tommy & Gronky, Rob Gronkowski asked Brady about playing until he’s 50 as part of Google’s most searched questions. 

“Wow, seems to be a really hot question lately,” Brady said, per NFL.com.  “Can Tom Brady play ’til 50? Like, 50 years old? Fifty. I don’t find it so difficult. Plus, in Florida, it’s kind of a retiree state, so I feel like I can play and then just glide into retirement. I think I can. I think it’s a yes.”

Brady says he can play until he’s 50, but the real question is will he play that long? USA Today Sports asked Brady the same question over the summer and gave a slightly different answer. “50? That’s a long time. Even for me, that’s a long time,” Brady said in June. “I’ve always said 45 was the age that I wanted to reach and that was my goal. This year I’ll be 44, so next year I’ll be 45. I got a two-year contract. I’m going to be able to obviously play this year and God forbid anything happens but play next year and then see what happens after that. If I still want to keep playing, I might be able to do that. And if that’s enough, then that would be enough.”

Only time will tell if Brady wants to play that long. But for right now, he’s having too much fun living in the present. The Buccaneers entered the 2021 season as one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl, and based on Brady’s history, it’s very hard to bet against them. He could decide to call it a career after this season, especially if the Buccaneers win the Super Bowl again and he can go out as a champion.

At this point, Brady has nothing to prove as many are considering him as the best player in NFL history. But Brady is always motivating himself each and every week, and along with him keeping in shape, it would not be a surprise to see him winning another Super Bowl at 50.