The Unretirement of Tom Brady

Well, that didn’t last long.

Six weeks after announcing his retirement from football, Tom Brady announced he would return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, citing “unfinished business”. Tampa Bay lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs, and the 44 year old Brady announced on February 1st that he was retiring.

Or, as it turns out, not. This certainly clears up who will be the Bucs’ quarterback next season. Although Tampa Bay should still have a contending team in 2022, they do have a number of key players who are free agents, including Brady’s old friend and teammate from New England, tight end Rob Gronkowski. Gronkowski hadn’t decided on what he’d do next season, possibly retiring, but we’re pretty sure he’ll come back now that Brady is returning. Other players may follow suit (depending on how Tampa Bay is with the salary cap).

One of the jokes out there is that Brady was home with the kids for six weeks and decided he’d rather go back to work. It’s more likely he needed some time to get over that loss to the Rams, and since he can still play at a high level and the Bucs are still a good team with him at QB, he decided to give it another go. Tampa Bay has a tough schedule in 2022, but it also means we’ll get to see him matched up with some great quarterbacks one more time. The Bucs will have a rematch with the Rams and QB Matthew Stafford. The also play Kansas City (Patrick Mahomes), Dallas (Dak Prescott), Baltimore (Lamar Jackson), and Green Bay (Aaron Rodgers).

Finally, we should acknowledge the pain that an anonymous sports collector is suffering now. A day or two before Brady announced his return, someone paid $518,000 at an auction for the football that Brady threw for his last NFL touchdown pass. Assuming Brady really does take the field and starts throwing touchdown passes again, the value of that football will fall to the ground like a dropped pass.