There’s a general supposition amongst the football watching public that Tom Brady must regret his decision. That is, Tom Brady, the 45-year-old quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, must regret the decision to return to the NFL for another year instead of retiring, as he did after losing in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs last year only to retract that intention a month later so he could return to Tampa for one more shot at a Super Bowl ring, of which he already has seven. By all accounts, Tom Brady had long abandoned human principles like ageing, so one more year with a team that seemingly had all the parts was no big deal.
That’s at least what was supposed to happen. Unfortunately, Brady’s year has gone worse than planned. Way worse. First of all, his team is 3-4 in a season where even bad teams seem to have a winning record. And yes, I’m talking about you New York Jets. He’s spent a considerable amount of time yelling at his teammates on TV. And he’s increasingly no longer viewed as one of the League’s elite quarterbacks, that distinction going to people like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and a bunch of other folks who are literally half Brady’s age. On top of that, Brady’s fairy tale private life has hit something of an impasse, with reports that he and his fabulously wealthy supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen have hired divorce lawyers to figure out the finances of what will be the most expensive split not involving the Royals. It was fairly well documented that Gisele wanted Tom to step down and spend more time with family – something he agreed to for all of about 30 days before changing his mind. So now, instead of enjoying his hundreds of millions of dollars on some Yacht with his family, he’s instead deciding who gets the linens in between beatdowns by the Panthers. For that reason, some have suggested he probably wishes he could have made a different choice.
Obviously, he’s not the only athlete who’s stuck around too long. In fact, he may not be the only quarterback in the NFL this year, given Aaron Rodgers’ standing with the Packers. But Brady’s example is an outlier of the outlier, a good 10 years past a typical long career and with literally nothing left to prove. And instead of reveling in the spoils of his victory where he can live with the self-righteousness of being the greatest quarterback in history with a supermodel wife, healthy kids and hundreds of millions in collective wealth, now he’s building a tinder profile and talking about shared custody. At least that’s what it looks like.
To that, I’d say a few things. First, anyone who says Brady stayed too long is clearly and absolutely correct, at least when it comes to football performance. He was way better last year than this one. If there was a cliff, he just went off it. But don’t pat yourself on the back too much. It doesn’t take a doctor to realize that 45-year-olds don’t fare well in pro football. At some point, Brady haters are going to be right.
Second, his story should be a cautionary tale to anyone thinking about stringing it along. For example, 41-year-old Serena Williams this week said that she’s not retired, only to follow it with a joke about playing at her house. I don’t believe that Williams will come back, if only because she seems quite happy living her newfound sports afterlife. But I’d be shocked if she isn’t looking at Brady’s storyboard and taking notes.
Finally, I think we’ve all assumed that because things aren’t going well for Tom, that he regrets his decision. I’m not sure that’s a safe bet. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from last summer’s retired, not retired switch, it’s that Tom Brady doesn’t seem particularly excited about life after playing football. And that’s even with a massive football broadcasting contract waiting for him after the helmet comes off. Tom Brady knew that heading to Tampa meant risking his marriage, and he also knew that he and his team might stink, which they do. In the end, to him, it was still worth it.
So all those assuming Tom Brady lives in regret probably don’t recognize the psychology of an athlete who can’t live without the game, even if eventually he’ll have to. That happiness is an oddly personal construct. And that giving up Sundays might be harder than giving up everything else.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler
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