Whether or not Tom Brady retires after this season might depend on the New England Patriots’ record.
The quarterback turned 40 years old Thursday, which means the annual conversation about when Brady will retire is back in full force. And ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio speculated that it might come this season if the Patriots wind up going undefeated.
“I still think there’s a chance he walks away at the end of the season for good,” Florio said on “PFT Live” on Thursday. “They win a Super Bowl, that’s it. He’s done. Especially if they go 19-0. I know it’s ridiculous they may go 19-0, but they’re the ones who won a Super Bowl and then acted like they haven’t won a Super Bowl in a decade by going all in in the offseason. So they created this expectation that they could go undefeated. And I think if they would — very slim chance of it happening — but if they would, I think he walks away.”
CSNNE’s Tom Curran agreed with the retirement part, but he believes the Patriots’ chances going 19-0 actually are good.
“Yeah, he says he wants to play ’til 45, maybe 50, but I think that just all the pressures that come with having a family, as your kids start to get older and the drumbeat from your spouse becomes, ‘Do you really want to keep doing this?’ could get difficult,” Curran said. “… I don’t think it’s as far-fetched as that. I do think it is far-fetched to think that it’s far-fetched that the Patriots might not go 19-0, though.”
While it is extremely difficult for an NFL team to go undefeated — the Pats know this firsthand — it might be even more difficult to definitively say when Brady will retire. Plenty of people thought it would happen after Super Bowl XLIX and then again after Super Bowl LI, but that obviously didn’t come to fruition.
Either way, we know Patriots fans hope Brady’s retirement comes later rather than sooner.
Thumbnail photo via Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports Images
