CLEVELAND, OHIO – NOVEMBER 27: Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers warms up before a game against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on November 27, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)
Tom Brady Sr., the son of now-retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, has sounded off on how he feels about the latter calling it quits.
The younger Brady was retired for only 40 days last year before deciding to come back for a 23rd season. Last Wednesday, Brady announced via social media that he was retiring for good following his age-45 season.
During an interview with ESPN’s Mike Greenberg (h/t Sophie Weller of MassLive.com), Brady Sr. explained that he is “relieved” over TB12 retiring for good:
“I basically feel relieved from him. I’ll tell you, one reality is before he retired for the last 23 years, we put it into our perspective that basically every game that was played in the NFL, all 267 of them, had some bearing on where our son was. When he was with New England, we were thinking it was every game you’d watch and it would be how Indianapolis appearing against New England. What scheduled? Who we got to face? Every game, we’ve been totally engrossed in it. So, before this announcement the other day, every single game counted and now no games count.”
“We’re not ever going to feel the same emotional highs that we felt and we won’t feel any emotional lows either because our team is not losing nor are they winning. So it’s preoccupied a major part of our life 30, 35, 40 years.”
Brady’s contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was slated to expire after this season, and there were plenty of rumors that he’d potentially join the Las Vegas Raiders (the connection with Josh McDaiels, of course) or his boyhood team in the San Francisco 49ers.
But Brady’s abrupt retirement announcement put an end to all the speculation. After 23 seasons, seven Super Bowl rings, three MVP awards and countless records, the 45-year-old Brady is content to stay retired.
Last year, Brady signed a 10-year contract with FOX Sports worth $375 million to serve as an analyst alongside play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt. However, Brady revealed in an interview with Colin Cowherd that he doesn’t expect to make the move to the broadcast booth until 2024.
It’s official! ?https://t.co/bXT9cT1XHA
— TPS (@TotalProSports) February 6, 2023
Brady retires with 251 career regular season wins, 89,214 passing yards and 649 touchdowns, all NFL records. The Bucs finished 8-9 in 2022, and though it was enough to win the NFC South division, it marked the first losing season of Brady’s career.
The Bucs lost 31-14 to the Dallas Cowboys on Super Wild Card Weekend, marking the end of Brady’s illustrious career.
