The New England Patriots’ quest for a seventh Super Bowl title is the team’s primary focus as the NFL playoffs begin Saturday at Gillette Stadium. Regardless of what happens in New England’s playoff opener, there’s another enormous storyline looming: the future of Tom Brady.
Brady’s future should take a backseat to the actual on-field football, and the Patriots quarterback himself says he’s focused on trying to beat the Tennessee Titans on Saturday. But Brady literally is one of the most famous, most successful athletes on the planet, and what he ultimately decides to do is an undeniably intriguing situation.
So, what will Brady do if and when the Patriots’ 2019 season comes to an end? Apparently, that hasn’t been decided yet, at least not according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss.
On Friday morning’s episode of “Get Up,” Reiss was asked about Brady’s pivotal offseason and critical decisions that loom. Brady can become a free agent this offseason, assuming he even wants to continue playing after a bumpy age-42 season. Speaking to “someone directly involved” in the situation, Reiss said it’s still anyone’s guess what happens.
“I talked to someone directly involved in that situation and they said it truly is a wait-and-see type of situation,” Reiss said Friday morning on ESPN. “There’s been no contract talks since August when they reached that revised deal.”
Of course, if that situation has gone unresolved for the entire season, it wasn’t going to change now, not with the playoffs ready to begin.
“Bill Belichick has a saying to his players at this time of year: Put it all in the drawer. Nothing else is important other than the football game we’re about to play,” Reiss continued. “So, we can say Tom Brady’s future with the Patriots is in the drawer and probably at the top of the pile in the drawer.”
See more from Reiss in the video below.
Live Patriots report on @GetUpESPN, talking Tom Brady. pic.twitter.com/5WN6N6sjZ8
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) January 3, 2020
A fascinating matchup with the Titans looms Saturday night, as the Patriots are tasked with playing a wild-card round game for the first time in 10 years. That’s because the Patriots — behind an uneven performance from Brady — lost a shocker in Week 17 to the lowly Miami Dolphins that cost New England a first-round bye. Tennessee — which beat up on Brady and the Patriots a year ago — is a formidable foe, and the end of the Patriots’ 2019 season (and perhaps Brady’s career) could be here.
Then again, how many times have we said that before only to see Brady and the Patriots turn it around in typically historic fashion?
