Here’s Why Tom Brady Would’ve Preferred To Delay Unretirement From NFL

Tom Brady’s retirement didn’t last long, and now we know why.

The Buccaneers quarterback called it quits back in February, but the 44-year-old unretired just 40 days later and returned to Tampa Bay days after head coach Bruce Arians stepped down.

Brady did an interview spanning a number of topics with Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh in May that was published Thursday. Setoodeh and Brady talked about everything ranging from how long he thinks he has left in football to his day-to-day outside the game he loves.

Also included: Why did Brady retire the first time around?

“I made the decision in the moment, and I felt it was the right thing for the team to let the Bucs know. You need time to plan,” Brady told Setoodeh. “And then through conversations with Bruce, (general manager) Jason (Licht) and my wife, I felt like I could still play and compete.

“And it’s not that I’m any less committed once I say that it’s a yes, but I’ve got a 14-year-old son who lives in New York City — he wants time. My wife, she’s been incredibly supportive of my career over a long period of time. So I had to talk with her, you know what I mean? Those decisions get made with me as a family. And I have two younger kids, one 12 and one 9 — everyone’s got challenging lives.”

One interesting takeaway from the interview was Brady’s response when asked why he unretired so quickly, having done so after just over a month.

“I know, I know. I would have preferred to unretire in July if I wanted to play,” he told Setoodeh. “But I couldn’t. If I said I’m not playing, they’d make plans. So I felt there was a lot of pressure to make a decision quickly. And then ultimately, I just decided, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ And once I said that, it was like — OK, here we go.”

TB12 wanted to wait out the decision but didn’t want his squad to shy away from him the longer he was gone. It’ll be interesting to see how his return to football and the Bucs pans out this upcoming season.