The competitive fire that burns inside of Tom Brady will determine how long he continues playing in the NFL.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback told ProFootballTalk's Peter King last week he'll play as long as he believes he's good enough to help his team win the Super Bowl. Brady, 44, is preparing for his 22nd NFL season and enters the campaign as a defending champion for the seventh time in his career.
"I'll know when the time's right," Brady said. "If I can't ... if I'm not a championship-level quarterback, then I'm not gonna play. If I'm a liability to the team, I mean, no way. But if I think I can win a championship, then I’ll play."
Judging by Brady's aforementioned criteria, retirement doesn't look to be in the cards any time soon. He threw for 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns last season, doing so with an injured knee and coming off a pandemic-disrupted offseason. Brady will look to help Tampa Bay defend its Super Bowl championship with the benefit of a tighter grasp of the Buccaneers offense, a better understanding of his teammates' tendencies and a surgically repaired knee.
That's why we're inclined to believe Brady's trainer, Alex Guerrero, who said last month he doesn't expect the 2021 season to be the last of the legendary QB's career. Something probably would have to go horribly wrong for Brady and the Bucs in 2021 to prompt his retirement in the coming months.
Perhaps Brady's comments to King are part of an annual exercise, in which he continues to defy Father Time and punts retirement further down the road.
