Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady told fans Tuesday he's retiring from football, saying it's time to focus on other things after an illustrious NFL career that has spanned 22 seasons.
A lengthy Instagram post from Brady, 44, the winner of seven Super Bowls, capped almost 72 hours of speculation since reports first emerged Saturday afternoon that he would hang it up.
Brady wrote of the brutal physical toll and total commitment it takes to play football at the highest level. He made only vague comments about future endeavors.
"This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore," wrote Brady, the NFL's all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown throws.
"I have loved my NFL career, and now it is time to focus my time and energy on other things that require my attention," he said.
Brady just completed his second campaign with the Buccaneers as the defending Super Bowl champions fell to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC semifinals.
Brady rallied the Bucs from a 27-3 deficit to tie it late before Matt Gay’s field goal at the gun won it for the Rams a week ago Sunday.
As soon as the game ended, speculation ran rampant about Brady’s future and whether he’d return to Tampa Bay for the 2022 season.
And as recently as Monday, it wasn’t clear that Brady was hanging it up.
“I think when the time is right, I’ll be ready to make a decision one way or the other,” he said on the Sirius XM podcast Let’s Go!
But Tuesday at 9:35 a.m. ET, Brady made it official.
"I've done a lot of reflecting in the past week and have asked myself difficult questions," he wrote. "And I am so proud of what we have achieved."
The will-he-or-won’t-he drama had become a running joke throughout the sports world.
The self-effacing New York Jets, a regular punching bag of Brady’s, jokingly tweeted Tuesday, “this better be real.”
“But seriously, congrats on a first-ballot, Hall of Fame career,” said the Jets, who lost 30 of 37 games to teams led by Brady. “We may not miss seeing you on the field, but the entire football world will.”All of Us Are Dead streaming vf, Euphoria saison 2 streaming vf, Spider-Man: No Way Home streaming vf, House of Gucci streaming vf, The Fallout streaming vf
Brady went to great lengths to thank nearly everyone in his inner circle, including family, teammates and coaches.
By name, he shouted out the Bucs’ owners, the Glazer family, Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht, Bucs coach Bruce Arians, personal trainer Alex Guerrero, agents Don Yee and Steve Dubin, his wife, Gisele Bündchen, and his children, Jack, Benny and Vivi.
Brady has spoken openly about his wife's desire for him to leave football and the emotional pain she suffered with every hit he took.
"Her selflessness allowed me to reach new heights professionally, and I am beyond words what you mean to me and our family," he wrote Tuesday.
He added a sentence in Bündchen's native Portuguese, "Te amo amor da minha vida," or "I love you, love of my life."
Despite having played two seasons in Tampa and two decades in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Brady conspicuously failed to make any mention of the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick in Tuesday's lengthy statement.
Under Belichick, Brady and the Pats captured Super Bowl titles in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017 and 2019.
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