Tom Brady broke the internet Sunday evening by announcing that he is coming out of retirement and will return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2022 NFL season.

 

That’s right folks. After two months spent laboriously spending time with his family, the GOAT himself will once again grace us with his presence on the gridiron. And, as we thank our lucky stars that we were able to survive this drought, we can only speculate as to why. Is it because Aaron Rodgers just inked a new four-year deal and Brady has a legacy to protect? Is it that Brady realized throwing passes to Drew Brees’s son and David Beckham’s son (from a boat) could never fill the Welker/Edelman/Gronkowski sized hole in his heart? Is it to further torment Jets fans like our own Howard Bender? The world may never know.

What we do know is that Tom Brady has a LOT of work to do to become the GOAT of retiring. Michael Jordan bounced the NBA to play hardball in the minors and even hit three home runs. Then he retired from baseball and returned to the court to save Bugs Bunny and company from a life of slavery on Moron Mountian. Then, after another three-year hiatus from basketball, he took on his greatest challenge yet: trying to make the Wizards good. Even in the NFL he’s a long way off from matching Brett Favre, who retired from the Packers, Jets, AND Vikings.  At Brady’s age, I’m just not sure he has the longevity to match a three-year stint or even drop the threepeat like the retirement/unretirement champs of our era. Those days might honestly be behind him.

 

I also have my doubts that Brady can fulfill all the rumors that have been generated over the last two months. If Tom Brady comes back to play for the Buccaneers, how is he going to play for his hometown 49ers?

Or follow up Ben Roethlisberger as the Steelers quarterback?

Or own the Dolphins (more than he already has)?



No, unfortunately, it looks like this is your run of the mill “really good player realizes that he is still really good and comes back to the same team to play really good football”. As Bruce Arians said on the Pat McAfee Show, he wouldn’t let Brady play for a team other than the Bucs even if he wanted to play again five years from now. In his own words, that would be “bad business”. So it looks like we are going to get another year (or maybe more) of the greatest quarterback of all-time throwing to the likes of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and probably also Rob Gronkowski.

What a shame for football fans.  
 

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