NFL reporter clears the air on Tom Brady retirement drama

Tom Brady has taken the NFL world by storm today, despite the Tampa Bay Buccaneers being eliminated from the playoffs, and despite Brady not actually saying a word.

ESPN NFL Insiders Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington dropped a bombshell report on Saturday saying that Brady was going to retire after 22 seasons in the NFL, ending the career of the most illustrious quarterback in NFL history. But then, Brady’s agent complicated the situation with a cryptic statement that left fans wondering whether the report was accurate. Several other reports surfaced claiming that Brady was actually entirely uncertain as to whether or not he would retire, explaining that he had not yet given word to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise. However, NFL insider Ian Rapoport appeared on NFL Network and doubled down on the news, reaffirming that Brady will, in fact, retire.

“Nobody has actually denied that Tom Brady plans to retire,” Rapoport explained. “There’s been a statement that sounded like a denial, there’s been Tom Brady’s father telling Mike Giardi basically saying he hasn’t firmly decided, there’s the fact that Tom Brady told the Buccaneers that he has not decided for sure to retire, there’s the statement from Brady’s longtime agent Don Yee calling this speculation, which is basically what he calls everything regarding reporting anyway — everyone has said not ‘no’ but ‘not yet.'”

“My understanding — confirming the initial report — is that Tom Brady does plan to retire. I’ve talked to several people close to him, and they believe he has played his last down of football, retiring after seven Super Bowls, three MVPs, 22 seasons, endless Pro Bowls, the greatest quarterback of all time, all of that. This sounds to me, taking all of this together, to be an issue of timing more than anything. Brady is very in charge and in control of his brand. He generally has fantastically well-produced announcements … This is not all buttoned up yet, but my understanding is that the plan is in fact for Tom Brady to retire.”

More on Brady’s potential retirement

The seven-time Super Bowl winning quarterback will go down as the best quarterback of all-time in the minds of the many. Nobody was a fiercer competitor, and nobody defied Father Time like Brady.

While Brady is walking away from the game, it’s clear he still has more left in the tank. At the age of 44, the Buccaneers quarterback is coming off one of his best statistical season. Brady threw for 5,316 yards and 43 touchdowns this past season for Tampa Bay. It’s not a case of the body failing his competitiveness.

“[Brady] talked on his podcast this past week with Jim Gray about the fact that it’s time to spend more time with family [with the] sacrifice the NFL takes,” Adam Schefter said on ESPN. “If you look at the body of work after 22 seasons, becoming the most accomplished passer and player in NFL history. Seven rings. What else is there to do at this point in time? It’s time to move onto the next chapter of your life, to spend time with your family, to go onto other business ventures.

Beloved in New England and beloved in Tampa Bay, Brady is one of only two men to win a Super Bowl quarterbacking two separate franchises. Additionally, he’s wreaked havoc on every team in the NFL — defeating every franchise at least once.

There isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been stated about Tom Brady. However, the best way to describe his contributions to the game is that the NFL will never be the same without him. He wasn’t the biggest, he wasn’t the strongest and he was never the most talented — but Tom Brady was the best throughout his 22 seasons in the league.

“It’s an adjustment for everybody,” Schefter said, when asked how a routine-driven player like Brady might handle retirement. “Anybody that plays sports at a high level for any high period of time, even not at a high level, whenever they go away from the sport, it’s a transition.”

While the news of Brady’s retirement has rocked the sports world, his agent doesn’t want anything set in stone until his client makes a statement himself, though the news is rampant enough the impending statement from Brady himself is inevitable. As of this writing, no statement has been made publicly regarding Brady’s career plans.