Opinion: Tom Brady's retirement serves as rare peek into legendary QB's human side
Tom Brady’s retirement brings to mind a theme that one of his childhood idols, Joe Montana, expressed years ago about hanging it up.
Once you start talking about retirement, you’re retired.
In other words, as buzz about Brady’s future intensified in recent days – before and after his attempt to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a repeat Super Bowl crown was cut short – it was probably fait accompli.
“We’ll take it day by day,” Brady said after the NFC divisional playoff setback against the L.A. Rams that nearly went down as another magical comeback victory but is now cemented as the final game of his remarkable 22-year career.
It only took a few days.
Yet it is hardly a surprise now. Sure, Brady, 44, reached the stage of his career when he would be expected to assess it year-by-year. That’s how Ben Roethlisberger rolled in recent years.
Something about Brady’s case, though, seemed different. This was really the first time the question of whether he would return became a dominant storyline surrounding a man who had told us he wanted to play until he was 45.
At midweek, it really seemed like a done deal after Brady, a father of three, said during his weekly podcast that the decision wasn’t just about him. Plus, his supermodel wife, Gisele Bündchen, has previously expressed concerns about potentially long-term effects from football injuries.
“It’s not always what I want,” Brady said on his podcast. “It’s what we want as a family.”
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That’s clearly talking about retirement….like you’re retired – wrapped with the conflicting sentiments that many players must grapple with deciding when to walk away.
Then again, maybe this confirms that Brady is not an alien or cyborg quarterback. He's mortal, with some of the same intimate pressures that most people have, albeit with a lot more money, fame and scrutiny than most could even imagine.
It may seem that after witnessing so much greatness from TB12 that we’ve been robbed of seeing him ride off into the sunset with a proper farewell. On his podcast, Brady said he didn’t want a Kobe Bryant-like farewell tour. It would have been a distraction, he maintained.
Still, couldn’t we see him leave as it rained confetti at the end of another Super Bowl win?
Never mind. It’s not about us. It’s about Brady and his home team. There was no need for a storybook ending for a storybook career.
That he was able to walk away and not get carried off with some terrible injury is rather cool, too, given how much of their bodies that football players sacrifice to play the game and earn a living.
Last week, after the loss to the Rams, Brady declared that his decision would have nothing to do with his health. Physically, he maintained, he felt fine.
Good for him. He knows that’s not always the case.
He also knows better than any of us that it’s time, though, health intact and a 102.1 passer rating this season, he leaves something for the debate of whether Tom really lost to Father Time.
Besides, Brady has nothing else to prove. Not only has the man won more Super Bowl championship rings (seven) than anyone. My favorite part of that feat is that he accomplished all of that after entering the NFL as a lowly regarded sixth-round pick.
He proved another point with the Bucs.
Brady showed that he could win big without Bill Belichick, that he still had plenty left after his split with the New England Patriots after 20 years. And shoot, he went back to Foxborough in October and beat Belichick (barely), too. All of this in his post-Patriot chapter – winning a Super Bowl, making another playoff run, beating Belichick, throwing for 83 touchdowns with Bucs, more than in any two combined seasons in his career – had to be so sweet for the ultimate competitor.
While Brady has gone out on his own terms and we saw it coming, it’s still a bit awkward. The news was leaked, broken on social media. It went viral within minutes, which is what happens these days. For all that Brady controlled on the football field, his retirement announcement was intercepted. He deserved better than that.
Soon, we’ll hear it from Brady himself. Talking about retirement, because he’s retired.
Follow Paste BN Sports' Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.