That’s one way to get your vacation disrupted.
If Tom Brady has come to the decision to retire or not, it doesn’t appear he wanted the world to find out the way it did Saturday afternoon. Or, someone received some false or premature intel.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington first reported the seven-time Super Bowl champion had decided to retire after 22 seasons in the NFL. But then, his business account for TB12 took down a tweet congratulating him, and a beat reporter covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers followed up with a conflicting report stating Brady hadn’t yet made his decision.
Now, even Brady’s father is chiming in to say a false story snowballed after getting into the hands of NFL insiders.
NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran, who covered Brady’s tenure with the New England Patriots extensively, also noted the quarterback currently is out of the country.
“At the moment, Tom Brady is out of the country and plans to be abroad next week as well,” Curran noted on Twitter.
“While he may intend to retire, it seems like a final, final, FINAL decision hasn’t been rendered or articulated. So this isn’t exactly ‘at ease’ on the Brady front but ‘stand down for now.’ “
Brady’s longtime agent, Don Yee, gave a statement to Schefter on the confusion that also makes it seem like word got out too soon.
“Seems like the cat exited the bag and the horse is out of the barn,” Curran also said on Twitter. “Based on Yee’s tweet, Brady was inclined to make if official before the league year, etc. and isn’t fired up about being beaten to the punch.”
Understandably, he probably wanted to control the messaging when he capped off such a legendary career.
Hopefully Brady’s vacation didn’t get completely ruined. He deserves it.
