Tom Brady might love football more than anyone who’s ever stepped foot on an NFL field, but there’s one facet of the game the iconic quarterback certainly won’t miss.
Brady was forced to deal with bruising pass-rushers for over two decades in the league. The seven-time Super Bowl champion ultimately mastered the art of going down when a sack was unavoidable, but the hits are going to come no matter your preparation or how skilled you are at evading pressure.
The 45-year-old no longer has to worry about taking those licks, as he closed the book on his playing days last week. In a recent interview with ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, Brady’s father revealed the physical toll was a big reason why the future Hall of Famer decided to hang up his pads.
“He once said this, he said, ‘I’m getting tired of getting hit.’ Having played 23 years and he holds the ignominious record of most sacks against in the NFL … and there must be another two or three thousand knockdowns,” Tom Brady Sr. told Greenberg on the “Greeny” radio show, as transcribed by Newsweek.
“At 45 years of age, you say, ‘Hey, do I want to get hit one more time?’ The answer’s really nah, I really don’t want to unless everything’s flipping. Unfortunately, it wasn’t clicking this year and I think it was a foregone conclusion.”
The elder Brady admitted there was a part of him that was “quite happy” to see his son finally ride off into the sunset. But another side of Brady Sr. was hoping TB12 played for the family’s hometown team in 2023.
