Things got a bit weird in New England after Tom Brady initially announced his NFL retirement.
On Feb. 1, Brady cleared the speculative air by officially announcing his retirement. A messy, confusing few days reached a somewhat predictable conclusion, with Brady using his own Instagram account to break the news.
There was just one problem: Brady, who won six Super Bowls in New England, made zero mention of the Patriots in his post. He thanked his family, his trainer, everyone with the Buccaneers and even people at Michigan. Click through the post below for a reminder.
Robert Kraft? Bill Belichick? Patriots fans? Nothing -- not at first, anyway. Brady eventually quote-tweeted a statement from the Patriots and featured plenty of New England footage in a spiffy tribute video for himself, but, for many, the damage already had been done.
Brady's omission of the Patriots led fans, reporters and talking heads alike to wonder whether the move was a calculated one by the 44-year-old, who might still hold a grudge for essentially being forced out of New England in 2020. Ted Johnson claimed that Kraft had a "tantrum" over the contents of Brady's post. That Brady didn't immediately sign a one-day contract with his former team and parade around Patriot Place for his adoring fans only added fuel to the fire.
Things got so screwy that an obviously bogus/parody report indicating Brady planned to give a farewell speech in Foxboro made the rounds on social media, with many fans buying it. The Patriots had to issue a statement to prevent thousands of people from descending upon Gillette Stadium for literally no reason.
That dialogue, while predictable and arguably understandable, looked sillier and sillier as time passed, with Brady clearly -- and publicly -- struggling with his retirement decision. And, with Brady on Sunday officially ending his retirement after 40 days, the early February hysteria surrounding his Instagram post looks even worse.
Regardless of whether Brady actually wants to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season or secretly wishes he were somewhere else, it's obvious he never was all-in on retirement. On Sunday night, his father, Tom Brady Sr., said the future Hall of Famer felt pushed "into a corner" and hastily made a decision before he wanted to. Additional reports indicate that Brady wasn't ready to announce his retirement but nevertheless issued his announcement amid pressure created by reporting over the previous few days.
So, his initial retirement post no longer should be viewed as anything other than a player, likely annoyed he had to do anything other than veg out on a beach in Costa Rica, throwing something together to get people off his back. He didn't want to formally say "goodbye" or "thank you" to anyone, let alone the Patriots. Perhaps, with his 2020 farewell to New England (including Belichick) in mind, Brady instead wanted to give the Bucs and their fans some love instead of making it all about the Patriots. It all was a mess, yes, but does it have to mean anything more than Brady actually being bad at something for once?
Sure, you still could focus on the fact that Brady's post was led by a photo of his October victory in New England. And you could make the point that there's no way a person as calculated and contrived as Brady would innocently forget to leave the Patriots of all teams out of his retirement statement, oblivious to how it would look. And there might be merit to those claims if you want to act like his ensuing videos and comments about the Patriots never happened.
However, with the benefit of hindsight, one part of this looks especially stupid: the one-day contract stuff.
Brady clearly didn't have enough confidence in his own decision to solidify it with a farewell extravaganza in New England. Plus, if he really thought returning to the Buccaneers was a possibility, signing a contract with the Patriots would've been impressively counter-productive. And who knows? Perhaps Brady is part of the growing number of people who believe that one-day contract ceremonies are trite and benefit no one.
At the end of the day, the conversation surrounding Brady's retirement post was as strange as the three days that preceded it and the 40 days that followed it. Many (this writer included) jumped the gun a bit, rushing to draw conclusions from something that always felt meaningless, and ultimately proved itself to be just that.
Lesson learned? Probably not, but there's a non-zero chance we'll know for sure a year from now.
