Tom Brady’s family will have to wait at least another year to get that extended quality time they’ve all been yearning for.
Brady on Sunday announced his NFL return a whole 40 days after initially retiring. Despite ongoing rumors of Brady wanting to play elsewhere, he apparently will play with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his 23rd NFL season.
His ever-talkative father, Tom Brady Sr., spoke with multiple reporters about the decision.
“Upon reflection and spending time with his family and stuff, he’s happy and we in the family are happy,” Brady Sr. told WBZ-TV’s Steve Burton. “We’ll be more than happy, we’re all elated and it’s going to be a wonderful, one more year. He’s said all along, ‘I’m going to play until 45,’ but I’m not sure that it’s so much the 45 as he just loves playing football.”
Brady Sr. added: “He had a heck of a good year this last year and you know once you give it up you don’t come back. There’s no semi-retirement in football so he can’t coast into retirement and I just don’t think that he was ready. He thinks he can do the job.”
The elder Brady also told WHDH-TV’s Dan Hausle, “I think people kind of put him into a corner and all these rumors and things before he was ready to make a decision and he had to say something just to get the news people off his back.”
For what it’s worth, Gisele Bundchen echoed Brady Sr.’s excitement after her husband’s announcement. So, too, did Buccaneers leadership — as expected.
As for the New England Patriots, the soonest they could face Brady and the Bucs is the 2023 season, unless the two meet in Super Bowl LVII.
