Tom Brady gets brutally honest on his retirement

For obvious reasons, Tom Brady has been trending lately. The greatest quarterback in history is reportedly leaning towards retirement after 22 wonderful seasons, even despite coming off one of the best campaigns of his career.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the news on Saturday that Brady was walking away from the game. Even the NFL and Brady’s brand bid farewell to the legendary gunslinger on social media, just for his father to deny all reports.

So, now that it’s settled that Tom Brady has not retired yet, when will it happen? Does that mean he’ll run it back with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Will he play somewhere else? What the hell is going on?

Tom Brady Says He Won’t Rush A Retirement Announcement

Millions of people are wondering what will Brady’s next move be. With that in mind, number 12 decided to clear the air on where he’s at right now and what he’s thinking during his weekly podcast ‘Let’s Go!’

“I don’t know, (when I will retire)” Brady said. “I know when the time is right, so like I’ve always said I’m very blessed to play as long as I have. As things have gone on in the later parts of my career, whether that was five years ago or even this year, you know, there’s a lot of interest in when I’m going to stop playing. And I understand that. It’s not that I don’t recognize that. It’s just when I know I’ll know and when I don’t know I don’t know, and I’m not going to race to some conclusion about that.”

“I’m going to take it day by day,” the seven-time Super Bowl champion affirmed. “It really is, I’ll take it by the moment and figure out when I feel really confident to allow people to, you know, I understand my decision affects a lot of people’s lives. So when that decision comes it will come.”

Brady Says He Wanted The Weekend To Be All About The Games

Brady admitted to being kind of disappointed and bummed out by the fact that the news broke right before the Championship Games. Per him, all the focus should’ve been on what was going on in the gridiron:

“It’s always a good line that I’m responsible for what I say and do and not responsible for what others say or do,” Brady explained. “Again, I think one thing I’ve learned about sports is you control what you can control and what you can’t you leave to others. You know, everyone I know, we’re in such an era of information and people want to be in front of the news often, and I totally understand that and understand that’s the environment we’re in, but I think for me I’m just, literally it’s day to day with me. I’m just trying to do the best I can every day and evaluate things as they come and trying to make a great decision for me and my family.”

“I was actually a little bit disappointed that that would actually play some part of what’s going on in NFL football which to me is such an amazing sport and it’s a great sport and the focus should be on those great games,” the QB added. “For me, I was trying to enjoy a nice weekend. It didn’t quite turn that way because my phone got really busy. But, you know, that’s just part of being in the situation I’m in.”

Will He Play Another Year Out Of Spite?

Some people speculate that Brady could come back for another season out of spite for that fake report and those who celebrated his retirement. And, while that wouldn’t be surprising given his competitive nature, he didn’t want to jump to conclusions right now:

“I think my motivation for playing football is to win and be successful and maybe there’s little parts of motivation that come from different places or what people may say or think, but I’m mostly motivated from inside and wanting to be the best for my teammates and my coaches and my organization,” Brady said.

“That’s kind of where my motivation’s been for a long time, and at different times you use different techniques and tools to put yourself in the right frame of mind, but for me, it’s just always being the best I can be and that’s how I’ve always wanted to be for my teammates,” he concluded.

At the end of the day, people had a tough time believing Brady would walk away without winning another Super Bowl. But if this was – indeed – goodbye, then thanks for all the memories, Tom, your résumé will never be matched.