His fans were delighted when he the announcement that he was coming from retirement to play another season in 2022. But the situation quickly turned sour in and out of the field.
In barbershops and on talk show sports, the debates over who is the best football player ever will always begin by mentioning Tom Brady. Tom Brady is the most skilled football player of N.F.L. time, having played for more than two decades of dominance in the sport. Alongside all of the exclamation marks Seven Super Bowl titles! five Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Awards! Brady’s football career has a question mark:
Could he’ve re-signed to play one more game as a member of Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Tampa Bay Buccaneers after initially going out on retirement this year?
Brady who announced his retirement on Wednesday, claiming his intention was to retire this time was not the same kind of season, whether on the pitch or off the field, that Brady was familiar with since returning with the Buccaneers at the age of 45. His career and season ended in a defeat of 31-14 in the Dallas Cowboys in an N.F.C. wild-card match last month and things were already beginning to unravel before the game.
Due to his nature being a pocket passer (even at the beginning of his career, he was not scrambler), Brady relied heavily on having a skilled offensive line that could allow the time needed to locate the most open receivers. The Buccaneers were home to one of the top offensive lines of the NFL. However, prior to this season the guard Alex Cappa bolted for the Bengals in free agency. guard Ali Marpet retired and center Ryan Jensen suffered a knee injury during training camp that forced him to miss the rest of the season.
Brady himself was absent for 11 days of training camp because of what coach Todd Bowles called “some personal issues.” His absence sparked speculation over Brady along with his couple relationship Former model Gisele Bundchen. The couple divorced in October. filed for divorce following 13 years of union just a day after the Buccaneers lost their fifth time in six games.
In the course of the season in which the Buccaneers offensive struggled to score, and Brady was able to throw just 25 touchdowns, which was the fifth-worst record during his time as a regular starter. Brady was never shy about his anger at a weak offense, no matter if it was with Tampa Bay or the New England Patriots or Tampa Bay and even hitting tablet computers on the sideline or screaming at players.
This season, Brady turned to a alternative strategy when he was angry: tripping or kick players on defense. Brady kicks Falcons offensive player Grady Jarrett at the end of a play during the week 5 victory which resulted in a fine of $11,139 by N.F.L. In the playoff loss against Dallas, Brady tried to slide through Cowboys safeties Malik Hooker and Malik Hooker. (The sliding tackle is which is illegal within football, has been legal in soccer.) The N.F.L. has fined Brady $16,444. He was planning to appeal since Brady said on his podcast “I did not even hit him. I tried to tee him up but I didn’t.”
The troubles off the field were not over. Brady was a spokesman for FTX which was a cryptocurrency trading platform that went under in the year before. A large portion of the millions of people who suffered losses expressed some resentment towards Brady and the other endorsers of celebrities. Brady also was one of the largest shareholders of FTX according to a court filing which shows his stake ranging from hundreds of millions of dollars to a mere 1.
“I certainly don’t feel guilty about him.” added Lee Smith an ex-tight end who the Patriots selected before he played eleven seasons in Buffalo, Oakland, and Atlanta. “Maybe his losses in crypto I’m feeling the worst for him. Also, his family issues because, again this guy is an actual human being. He’s not a machine.”
Brady’s vulnerability as a human took over him. Being hit by large players is a normal aspect of the job description however during his final season Brady was hesitant to confront this, which is perhaps appropriate due to his age. In the face of anxiety, pressure within the pocket or the two, he attempted to throw throws to the dirt to prevent hitting and then threw a costly intercept in the final game of the season against the Cowboys. This season’s Buccaneers ended up with the most disappointing score (8-9) that any club has in the league for which Brady was the sole starter during his N.F.L. career. The Buccaneers weren’t even in the playoffs due to their division, which was the N.F.C. South was one of the most difficult of the N.F.L.
They stopped gushing about how amazing Brady is for the age he was and insisted Brady could continue to play into his 50s like the case was when he retired his first time. They then started begging him to stop.
“You appear to be someone who is stealing money,” Marcus Spears, the former N.F.L. defensive lineman who is an ESPN host, told podcast. He also said: “Bro, go home Bro, go home. Go home. Find another thing to do. I’m sure that it’s Tom Brady. I’m certain that it’s the G.O.A.T. You’re afraid of getting hit and also you play football. The two don’t go together.”
There was a lot of debate over whether Brady the quarterback, who became an unrestricted free agent following the season of 2022, could join a different team. He is a part of the San Francisco 49ers, his most beloved team when he was a kid within the Bay Area, seem to be a great quarterback from an Super Bowl appearance. They are the Las Vegas Raiders have Brady’s long-time offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, as their head coach, along with a variety of skilled offensive linemen.
“Honestly after watching the game tonight Who would like to see Tom Brady starting on their team in the coming season?” Ryan Clark, who was a former N.F.L. defensive back who is an ESPN TV personality, posted on Twitter following the Buccaneers losing against the Cowboys.
Was returning in 2022 worth the effort for Brady? He’ll likely be able to be able to answer that question on his podcast or the Fox broadcast in which he’ll be an anchor. Brady was not a disaster during his final season. Brady threw for the third highest pass yards of the NFL as well as the sixth-highest number of yards in his career. But he clearly wasn’t the player he was once or had an elite team around him. Thus, Brady’s life was a success, and had played out as a perfect Hollywood film and ended in what appeared to be a disorienting ending.
“All of us must quit on our conditions, or else we’ll be content, and the majority of us can’t quit on our own conditions,” said Smith, who was retired at the end of the 2021 season, which was his 11th season in the N.F.L. “They make the decision for you. Therefore, I believe the effort was worthwhile because it gives him the peace of mind that comes from walking off when it was his duty to.”
