For years, Tom Brady has said that he’ll play 10 more years. He actually may play 10 more years.
Speaking to Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer of Amazon in advance of Thursday night’s game in Philadelphia, Brady for the first time suggested playing not until he’s 50 but until he’s 55.
“I really think I can play as long as I want,” Brady said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “I really do. I could literally play until I’m 50 or 55 if I wanted to. I don’t think I will obviously . . . my physical body won’t be the problem. I think it’ll just be, I’m just missing too much of life with my family.”
He has previously mentioned the impact his family will have on his longevity. However, he also said this last month: “I want to go until the end, because I want to make sure I don’t look back and go, ‘Man, I could still do it.’”
So he seems to think he could play until 55. But he doesn’t want to look back and say, “Man, I could still do it.” That’s the tension, the dilemma. The thing that could cause him to stop before he physically loses his ability to play.
His words also set up a possibility I hadn’t previously considered. What if he goes away for a year or two and then comes back? If he can play until 55, maybe he plays until 47 and then, after two or three years of telling himself, “Man, I could still do it,” he comes back.