Many believe Tom Brady initially planned to announce his NFL retirement in the long-delayed (and still-unreleased) "Man in the Arena" finale. If only we were so lucky as to have that be what actually happened.
Instead, Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington got wind of Brady's plans before reporting the bombshell last Saturday. However, with Brady not confirming the news while his team, agent and fitness brand all sent conflicting signals, the football world sat and waited for the seemingly inevitable to arrive.
Then, shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Brady finally cleared the air, officially announcing his retirement while not actually using the word "retire" -- because everything must be difficult. Additionally, he completely omitted any mention of the Patriots, instead using a bunch of slides to thank his wife, his trainer, his parents, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and even Michigan, which, like New England, once gave off we-don't-need-Tom-Brady vibes.
In the two days since, Patriots fans, players and pundits have been arguing about whether Brady, whose post is led by a photo of him beating New England in October, sent a subliminal shot at his former team. People have been yelling about one-day contracts. The topic has received the customary beat-a-dead-horse treatment from "Felger & Mazz." Ted Johnson said Robert Kraft had a tantrum about this whole thing.
Meanwhile, Brady and Gisele Bundchen still might be in Costa Rica doing Costa Rica things.
Barring some future announcement/celebration from Brady and the Patriots, this storyline's shoes finally might be done dropping. The three pillars of the Patriots dynasty -- Kraft, Brady and Bill Belichick -- all have spoken since Brady's initial post.
So, let's go over the updated Brady-Patriots statement timeline.
Tuesday, 9:39 a.m.: Brady sends initial retirement post.
Tuesday, 12:35 p.m.: Brady, perhaps feeling the heat, reshares the Kraft statement on his Instagram story and thanks the Patriots. He duplicates the post minutes later on Twitter.
Tuesday, around 12:45 p.m.: With bogus reports making the rounds, the Patriots inform NESN.com that Brady would not be giving a farewell speech in Foxboro, Mass., on Wednesday.
Tuesday, 7:08 p.m.: Patriots honor Brady with a tribute video.
The next 24 hours: Brady constructs perhaps the longest Instagram story of all time, including various posts acknowledging former Patriots teammates.
Wednesday, 7:44 p.m.: Belichick, first after seeing his alleged texts included in Brian Flores' class-action lawsuit against the NFL, shares his own statement about Brady.
Wednesday, sometime around 10:30 p.m.: Brady reacts to Belichick's statement.
Mercifully, things have been quiet since then.
Where things go from here remain both unpredictable and predictable.
UPDATE: Thursday, 11:20 a.m.: Brady shares a video containing plenty of Patriots footage -- but still not mentioning them by name -- while emphasizing the word "all."
Anyway, about what could come next.
Maybe Brady authors another post that rehashes everything he said after leaving New England in 2020. Perhaps he and the Patriots figure out a one-day contract or something similar. Maybe Brady finally uses the word "retire."
Either way, we have arrived at a place where there is nothing to do but lose. For many, nothing Brady does from this point can erase the perceived low-blow of his initial post. Perhaps that's the genius of The Sports Hub's 2-6 show, which, if nothing else, certainly knows how to gaslight an entire region.
Or maybe, just maybe, we'll all move on with our lives and appreciate Brady's career for what it was: incredible and irreplaceable. We can only hope.
