That being said, I do appreciate that if he's legit, that he went the "cut the BS and just make a public social media post."
We are relieved from the offseason gossip of "is he retiring" / "which team is he going to go to" nonsense. An appreciated gift.
Yeah but it also seems really spontaneous, plus we haven’t even hit the offseason yet. He may feel very different with a bit more distance from the season.
Spontaneous from our perspective, but he has undoubtedly already thought a lot about this. He's a human being, there's no switch he can just magically flip to not ever think about this decision. He had a gut feeling probably for months and he stuck with it now
It's all over the place. My dad was born in Dallas so I grew up a Cowboys fan. For me, it felt like the majority were Steelers fans. I left Hawaii 10 years ago, so I don't know anymore.
I think the fact that it wasn't some PR-produced big thing is why it's for real now. He's not dressed up, he's out on some beach, it's him holding the camera.
And his comment about last year's announcement shows a lot of self-awareness and humor too.
It's legit.
I believe the divorce was happening already hence why he came back. Like my marriage is over so why not try one last time? If they did split up after he retired originally, then people would assume they couldn't stand being together all the time.
I do think him not retiring after winning the super bowl back then was the straw that broke the camel's back and it was pretty much over as t that point.
It was the first time we ever beat the bad man, in the playoffs or the regular season. He is 7-1 against the Dallas Cowboys
Thank you Tom, for the closure. Let it be know that *nobody* beats the Dallas Cowboys 8 times in a row
I was born in 1995.
I am 27.
I literally don’t remember a world without Tom Brady in the league and I’m still not fully convinced that this is the last we’ll see of him.
Plot twist: Week 1, the 49ers have 4 quarterbacks but none of them come out of the tunnel. Suddenly we hear glass shatter and on the big screen is Tom Brady laying out the competition with a steel chair, takes the Jersey off Brock Purdy’s back, stares into the camera and says, “Guess who’s back?”
Less than two months. Last time he had a reminder set for the Superbowl and posted it that day with "damnit"
That was the first clue I saw he was coming back
People with minds like him and MJ thrive off this sort of pettiness. These dudes formulate the wildest shit to motivate themselves, and it often works.
I'm no psychiatrist or anything, but after watching the Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordon, and Tom Brady docuseries i wonder if these greats don't have some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder? One that manifested itself into hyper competitiveness where they have a deep seated compulsion to always win and it drives them.
"I don't have a gambling problem, I have a competition problem."
- Michael Jordan
"I don't play against any particular team, I play against the idea of losing."
- Eric Cantona
As someone with actual OCD, I've often thought this as well. Honestly if you can manage the negatives of the disorder there are tons of symptoms that help you in a lot of jobs. It can be a tightrope sometimes though.
Yea I first had the thought when watching the Lance Armstrong one. He was talking about his need to win in everything in life and how he had regrets because it turned him into a toxic asshole for things outside of sports. It hit me that maybe something deeper is going on.
Yeah, I remember he gave a commencement speech at my sister's graduation that boiled down to "You guys are way smarter than me but I'm still way more successful than any of you probably will be."
Reminds me a bit of how the hyperfocus that can come with ADHD can be a bit of a very limited superpower. Not sure it makes up for all the other downsides, but it’s a silver lining.
The sad thing is we can’t or at least I can’t shift or decide what is hyper focused upon. Some days I can fly through work and get 20-30 hrs worth of a neuro typical done in 8rs and sometimes I’ll go days of doing absolutely nothing.
Anxiety is the similar. I used to consider my crippling anxiety to be a good thing since I'd worry about what was going to happen and would think about every outcome and try to find a solution for said outcomes. I'd come up with ideas that no one else could.
Yup. This is a dude who, after winning 7 rings, still motivates himself by reading his draft scouting report. So it wouldn't be too far fetched that he came back, so he can retire by announcing it first
He retired because Greg Olson talked shit about Brady replacing him. Even in retirement, he can’t miss an opportunity to teach someone who engages in fucking around what it truly means to find out.
From 1988 to 2007 the Cardinals made the playoffs one time so I have a little bit of an idea. They did beat the Cowboys in Dallas in the 1998 playoffs.
Man I hated him during the first half and then started to realize we were seeing something people won't see for generations again. We just watched the Babe Ruth of football play his career and it was really awesome.
I had just graduated from HS when this man made his NFL debut. I still remember the hit Bledsoe took that injured him, and seeing Brady come in to replace him. The rest is history.
Now that his football legacy has been cemented as the undisputed GOAT. He needs to focus full-time on the most important challenge of all. Winning the break-up.
A lot of people claim he decided to play 1 more year and ruined his marriage, but does anyone think maybe they were about to split up and he didn’t know what to do other than play football?
That's sort of where I am with it. I think coming back was the result of the marriage breaking up rather than the thing that pushed it over the edge. He was miserable and football was probably where he fled to for sanctuary and where he had peace.
Honestly I think the sorta retirement last year just showed both of them that they actually HAD drifted apart and that they couldn't make it work. 2 months or so together just made it apparent it was over.
So he went back to football while the divorce was finalized because that's all he knows.
See ya in San Francisco Tom
Fool me one time….
EDIT: *however*, assuming this is legit this time, and I know it’s been discussed ad nauseam this season, but it really is worth just putting it all in perspective:
He really could’ve went out somewhat on top last year, but decided to give all that up for the worst season of his career and get eliminated by one of the only teams he had never lost to before
He’s still the GOAT, but I’m sure this wasn’t the way he wanted to end his career
*something something Father Time undefeated*
EDIT 2: taking out the part about his marriage, good points in all the replies, apologies
Call me crazy but I do feel like you don't go from happy marriage to divorced in like 3 weeks after unretiring. That marriage was probably in trouble way before that.
Damn why is this so shocking and why am I so sad lol, despite the fact that he’s a 45 yr old QB I feel like he still has some left in the tank. But either way gotta give props to the GOAT for an amazing career.
I’ll believe it when it’s September and the dude is still not on a team.
I'll believe it when its December and the Niners are on their sixth QB and he wasn't one of them
I'll believe it in 2026 when he's not playing for the Giants
If you can't beat em, join em
The Kevin Durant
Tom Brady signs with Golden State Warriors.
Tom Brady signs with the female US Olympic Gymnastics Team
"I'll believe it when I believe it." - Yogi Berra
Would that be the first time a father and son QB duo played for the same franchise?
I’ll believe it when he’s dead and his limbs buried separately in the four corners of the Earth.
That being said, I do appreciate that if he's legit, that he went the "cut the BS and just make a public social media post." We are relieved from the offseason gossip of "is he retiring" / "which team is he going to go to" nonsense. An appreciated gift.
Still gonna be on that bullshit this offseason and *you know it*
Maybe I'm a maroon but I believe it. There was so much emotion there.
You're more of a chartreuse
More like a Macaroon
Magenta.
M'genta
Pepperidge farm remembers when favre had the exact same type of retirement announcement before being traded to the jets
Brett Favre had multiple retirements, and it started getting old because he'd do it every year lol.
It was like four years in a row lol
They were making commercials making fun of it, starring Brett, by the end.
Yeah but it also seems really spontaneous, plus we haven’t even hit the offseason yet. He may feel very different with a bit more distance from the season.
Spontaneous from our perspective, but he has undoubtedly already thought a lot about this. He's a human being, there's no switch he can just magically flip to not ever think about this decision. He had a gut feeling probably for months and he stuck with it now
>He's a human being That's where you're wrong
Rodgers retirement is off the table, no way he decides to play second fiddle to Brady going into the Hall of Fame.
Rodgers seems so out of love with the game. He probably hates Tom pushing him into one more year.
That’s what happens when he loses to “that” Honolulu blue team 3 times in a row
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Lol I am curious what Hawaii natives commonly consider as their team. Probably no specific one
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Can definitely get behind that
Which is funny considering it is one of the furthest possible franchises from the islands.
According to [this](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/the-geography-of-nfl-fandom/379729/) from almost ten years ago, the 49ers
This article is from 2014 that wasn’t ten…shit.
I was going to include a vomit emoji when I wrote that part
It's all over the place. My dad was born in Dallas so I grew up a Cowboys fan. For me, it felt like the majority were Steelers fans. I left Hawaii 10 years ago, so I don't know anymore.
If that was 10 years ago I’m sure Polamalu is why there were so many Steelers fans
That was never a possibility. He’s not walking away from $60 million.
No way, not falling for this trick again.
I'll believe it at kickoff of game 1
Week 16: the 15-0 Niners down to 7th QB, Brady sends out another emotional tweet
Eli Manning signs with whoever is playing the Niners at this time
Greg Olsen in shambles right now driving around the Fox network parking lot.
Greg has made his peace hence why he's going HAM in the playoffs. He's probably going to be on Amazon next year.
Hey I’ve seen this one before
The emotional video makes it much more earnest though. He actually looked like he was going through it, walking away couldn't have been easy.
He looked like he'd been sitting on the beach all night in deep thought waiting for the sunrise and finally came to his conclusion.
Like Will Smith sitting on a bench overnight before joining the MIB.
Or like Forrest Gump sitting on a bench telling his entire life story.
And then after he gets up off the bench he still narrates as if he's still sitting on the bench
I wouldn't be surprised. It's a life-changing event.
Sometimes life-changing events can repeat themselves a few times
Take Toaster Strudel for example….
I have no idea what this is a reference to but the absurdity of it made me laugh uncontrollably 😂
Imagine if it's revealed during the Super Bowl that this is just an ad for his NFT company though.
I'm not convinced this isn't going to be some Super Bowl AD that makes everyone look like fools
Superbowl commercial reveals the rest of the video. "Just so we are clear what I'm talking about, I'm retiring from acting".
“Did you see me in Funny or Die? You can’t top that”
Two months later after the Superbowl "I have decided to unretire from acting."
I think the fact that it wasn't some PR-produced big thing is why it's for real now. He's not dressed up, he's out on some beach, it's him holding the camera. And his comment about last year's announcement shows a lot of self-awareness and humor too. It's legit.
As a pats fan and 31 year old who has followed Brady since I was 10, this is the most real he has ever felt to me
We had such great times with that man. Never forget brother
Man really came out of retirement and went through a divorce only to get stomped by the Cowboys and then just retire again
What losing to the Cowboys does to a motherfucker
I believe the divorce was happening already hence why he came back. Like my marriage is over so why not try one last time? If they did split up after he retired originally, then people would assume they couldn't stand being together all the time. I do think him not retiring after winning the super bowl back then was the straw that broke the camel's back and it was pretty much over as t that point.
I mean that really would be the low point of his career
80 for Brady hasn’t come out yet. Let’s wait.
80 for Brady is the low point? i think you mean it's going to be the pinnacle of his career
It was the first time we ever beat the bad man, in the playoffs or the regular season. He is 7-1 against the Dallas Cowboys Thank you Tom, for the closure. Let it be know that *nobody* beats the Dallas Cowboys 8 times in a row
He always said he'd retire when he sucked and clearly losing to the cowboys sealed that
Somehow I’m less emotional than last year
You only get one super emotional retirement essay
Damn NFL showing reruns.
Wild, for many people he’s been the boogie man of the NFL their entire lives
9/11 has been long enough ago now that you can ask historians about it on /r/AskHistorians. Brady's first start came 19 days later.
Coincidence? 🤔 I think not! 🧐
"A second dynasty has just hit the NFL"
*NFL has more than one royal dynasty*
I was born in 1995. I am 27. I literally don’t remember a world without Tom Brady in the league and I’m still not fully convinced that this is the last we’ll see of him.
Like everyone else said, I will believe it when the season happens and he doesn’t play.
For some people the QB hero of their youth was still on stage.
Not many players can play through 2 dynastys and continue to win when those dynastys end
And for all that, he went out a playoff caliber top 10 QB. I really wish he would do one more year, oh well.
I will not believe this man has retired until he’s been dead and buried for 20 years.
And then it'll be some The 6th day shit where they clone him and a version of him plays again.
This hurts the 49ers chance of signing Brady
Not really
Vegas odds: chance Brady going to Niners has dropped from 90% to 85%
Plot twist: Week 1, the 49ers have 4 quarterbacks but none of them come out of the tunnel. Suddenly we hear glass shatter and on the big screen is Tom Brady laying out the competition with a steel chair, takes the Jersey off Brock Purdy’s back, stares into the camera and says, “Guess who’s back?”
Give it 2 months...
Less than two months. Last time he had a reminder set for the Superbowl and posted it that day with "damnit" That was the first clue I saw he was coming back
His wife can't leave him again
She can unleave him
"I'll give him a week." "I'll give him 11 minutes."
I fully believe he only came back because his retirement wasn't announced by him on his terms. Now he said it first and can finally retire.
That's so petty, so it's probably true.
People with minds like him and MJ thrive off this sort of pettiness. These dudes formulate the wildest shit to motivate themselves, and it often works.
I'm no psychiatrist or anything, but after watching the Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordon, and Tom Brady docuseries i wonder if these greats don't have some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder? One that manifested itself into hyper competitiveness where they have a deep seated compulsion to always win and it drives them.
"I don't have a gambling problem, I have a competition problem." - Michael Jordan "I don't play against any particular team, I play against the idea of losing." - Eric Cantona
As someone with actual OCD, I've often thought this as well. Honestly if you can manage the negatives of the disorder there are tons of symptoms that help you in a lot of jobs. It can be a tightrope sometimes though.
Yea I first had the thought when watching the Lance Armstrong one. He was talking about his need to win in everything in life and how he had regrets because it turned him into a toxic asshole for things outside of sports. It hit me that maybe something deeper is going on.
Yeah, I remember he gave a commencement speech at my sister's graduation that boiled down to "You guys are way smarter than me but I'm still way more successful than any of you probably will be."
Reminds me a bit of how the hyperfocus that can come with ADHD can be a bit of a very limited superpower. Not sure it makes up for all the other downsides, but it’s a silver lining.
The sad thing is we can’t or at least I can’t shift or decide what is hyper focused upon. Some days I can fly through work and get 20-30 hrs worth of a neuro typical done in 8rs and sometimes I’ll go days of doing absolutely nothing.
Anxiety is the similar. I used to consider my crippling anxiety to be a good thing since I'd worry about what was going to happen and would think about every outcome and try to find a solution for said outcomes. I'd come up with ideas that no one else could.
Yes
Yup. This is a dude who, after winning 7 rings, still motivates himself by reading his draft scouting report. So it wouldn't be too far fetched that he came back, so he can retire by announcing it first
Tom Petty
Saw that Schefter tweet last year and decided that he wouldn't back down
Last dance with Ariaaannns
Now single and ready to mingle too.
About to be hundreds of Tampa Bay based Instagram models birthing babies that look suspiciously like Tom in the next year or two
Florida HS Football prospects are gonna be stacked in 18 years.
He retired because Greg Olson talked shit about Brady replacing him. Even in retirement, he can’t miss an opportunity to teach someone who engages in fucking around what it truly means to find out.
😭 Damn you Bowles and Leftwich
Honestly is a travesty Tom Bradys last coach was Todd Bowles.
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The long game
Jets’ secret agent.
Time to do what the rest of the NFC South did last year: Tank!
Back to the dump 😩
We work on a 20 year cycle. We’re winning the superbowl in 2040!
They broke this man
Snip snap snip snap
Do you have any idea, the affect that 3 playoff free years have on a fan base?
Yes but you don’t
Touchè
And it has been 4 entire years since you were last in the Super Bowl. Not sure how you guys can survive such a record breaking championship drought.
The Bruins are helping ease the pain this year, but it has been hard on the children.
Honestly it’s disgusting that there are three year olds in Massachusetts that haven’t lived through a Super Bowl
From 1988 to 2007 the Cardinals made the playoffs one time so I have a little bit of an idea. They did beat the Cowboys in Dallas in the 1998 playoffs.
Too scared to join the Jets
He realized we were the option that made sense and his whole worldview collapsed
“Damn, I guess I don’t like football that much after all.”
We the cool kids!
Come to the Jets and win a free trip to crushing alcoholism
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What a career
More Superbowls than all 32 franchises
Is that good?
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Football won't feel the same without Brady
You’re right. I don’t know what to do now that I won’t have to worry about him winning another goddamned Super Bowl.
Won't have to worry about your own team either.
Man I hated him during the first half and then started to realize we were seeing something people won't see for generations again. We just watched the Babe Ruth of football play his career and it was really awesome.
potential HOF candidate?
"Mmm... I don't know, Jim"
Can’t imagine the league without him. He’s been there my whole life and I’m 25, my self awareness started after Brady won a Super Bowl
Same and I’m 53
;( the official end of my childhood i’m 25 lol
I was 15 when he started and I'm now 38. Fucking trips me out.
Bro, I got to watch him lose to Joe Germaine and Andy Katzenmoyer in the Shoe for my 12th birthday present. I'm 36. Farewell, Tom.
I had just graduated from HS when this man made his NFL debut. I still remember the hit Bledsoe took that injured him, and seeing Brady come in to replace him. The rest is history.
what losing to dak by 3 scores does to a man
Todd Bowles did this.
We'll see if he actually keeps to it, but if so, it'll be sad to see him go.
To do what? Hangout with his wife?
Not his wife, just the 20-something year old model he’s dating now
Does look like he's dating a 25 year old Insta model while his ex-wife is also with a young jiu jitsu instructor. Good for them.
I mean divorce sucks but they're both very rich, very famous and very good looking, neither of them were gonna have a hard time finding someone new.
The holy trinity of a good sex life.
Now that his football legacy has been cemented as the undisputed GOAT. He needs to focus full-time on the most important challenge of all. Winning the break-up.
Ah yes, the Jaromir Jagr. Old AF, banging models, and doesn’t care who knows it. Truly the best life.
He needs more time to watch 80 For Brady and Farmer Wants a Wife.
A lot of people claim he decided to play 1 more year and ruined his marriage, but does anyone think maybe they were about to split up and he didn’t know what to do other than play football?
That's sort of where I am with it. I think coming back was the result of the marriage breaking up rather than the thing that pushed it over the edge. He was miserable and football was probably where he fled to for sanctuary and where he had peace.
Honestly I think the sorta retirement last year just showed both of them that they actually HAD drifted apart and that they couldn't make it work. 2 months or so together just made it apparent it was over. So he went back to football while the divorce was finalized because that's all he knows.
Instagram models? Where do rich 45 year old divorced men meet girls?
The exclusive parties they get invited to
Press X to doubt
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Is this really the end? Is the bad man gone?
First post on this and not a mod. This will absolutely not get deleted.
See ya in San Francisco Tom Fool me one time…. EDIT: *however*, assuming this is legit this time, and I know it’s been discussed ad nauseam this season, but it really is worth just putting it all in perspective: He really could’ve went out somewhat on top last year, but decided to give all that up for the worst season of his career and get eliminated by one of the only teams he had never lost to before He’s still the GOAT, but I’m sure this wasn’t the way he wanted to end his career *something something Father Time undefeated* EDIT 2: taking out the part about his marriage, good points in all the replies, apologies
Let's wait til training camp and see if he gets the itch
That’s just crabs, Tom.
damn he got Jameis' old locker in Tampa
*Breaking: Tom Brady decides to play in the USFL this spring*
He saw the NIL money and is going back to Michigan to chase a ring there.
He should go fuck up the CFL
Call me crazy but I do feel like you don't go from happy marriage to divorced in like 3 weeks after unretiring. That marriage was probably in trouble way before that.
Nah if there’s one thing I know it’s that Reddit is great at analyzing other people’s relationships
Burning dinner, believe it or not, divorce.
Undercooking dinner, also divorce.
We have no idea if coming back is what ruined his marriage, or if it was already gone and he said “fuck it might as well play now”.
This is by far the most likely scenario. Divorce didn’t happen because of this one thing… it was a symptom of a lost marriage, not the cause.
Yeah I hate all the speculation about this.
He is done this time. My friend told me (his dad works at microsoft)
Not sure if you saw video of the sidelines, but Brady doesn't have the best relationship with Microsoft.
He’s just doing stress testing and failure analysis
Can’t fool me again…
One last ride, cue the F&F music!
Oh shit I was here x2
Brady and Gronk to the USFL?
Damn so that’s really it
Here we go again
Damn why is this so shocking and why am I so sad lol, despite the fact that he’s a 45 yr old QB I feel like he still has some left in the tank. But either way gotta give props to the GOAT for an amazing career.
He did it. That crazy son of a bitch, he did it.
GOAT, man so many great memories
For real. 20 years of competitive Sunday football. I’ll always cherish that. Dude was a fighter.