Look, Tom Brady is about to be 44-years-old and is entering his 22nd year in the NFL. We know his career is on the backend when it comes to the amount of years he has left.
But to hear him actually say that his career is “coming to the end” strikes a different chord.
That’s exactly what Brady did on HBO’s latest episode of The Shop: Uninterrupted.
The episode opened up with the newly-famous scene where the Bucs quarterback is discussing (and dissing) the situation where a certain team ditched him during free agency. The focus then shifts right back to Brady after the opening credits.
But the group consisting of Brady, Maverick Carter, Chelsea Handler, Draymond Green, Kid Cudi, and Paul Rivera aren’t talking about Brady and free agency anymore. They’re talking about Brady’s career.
“Tom, you keep winning,” says Carter at the open.
Handler cuts in saying, “Forever and ever and ever.” The group bursts into laughter.
Brady, among the laughter, responds in a pretty serious tone. “That’s not happening,” in reference to Handler’s comment as the camera cuts to him. “Not forever and ever and ever.”
“It was already happening!” jokes Green.
“We’re coming to the end,” Brady says. “It’s coming to the end.”
“I gotta tell you, it doesn’t look like it’s coming to an end,” says Maverick. “At all.”
While Maverick’s words are true -and something all Bucs fans needed to hear after Brady’s comment- Brady’s tone and body language was rather solemn when he said his career is coming to the end.
You can tell he meant it.
The Bucs have the seven-time champ under contract for the next two seasons. But he could retire after 2021 if let’s say, the Bucs repeat as champs. And then Brady turns 45-years-old in 2022. It’s been well-documented that he wants to play until he’s 45. After that, who knows what the future holds.
Based off these comments, it sounds like Brady’s post-football life will begin after the 2022 season. However, only time will tell if that’s the case.
“So much of it for me is about, you know, having perspective,” Brady tells the group. “After a while you go, ‘Holy shit, like, what happened?’. There are times where I was young and really enjoyed the moment of sports and then [I] thought after we won our third Super Bowl, I was really young; I made some comment like, ‘Man, maybe there’s more to life than this.’
“Then we didn’t win the Super Bowl for 10 years and I was like, ‘Fuck man, this is really hard!’. And then the next time we won the Super Bowl was the most amazing experience of my life because I had perspective of not doing well and then, you know, taking it for granted when it did go well. And then realizing at this moment, ‘Oh my God, that was like, impossible.'”
You can check out this episode of The Shop: Uninterrupted and all the other ones, here.
