FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – JANUARY 04: Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots yells to teammates on the field during the the AFC Wild Card Playoff game against the Tennessee Titans at Gillette Stadium on January 04, 2020 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Tom Brady is regarded as the greatest quarterback ever, winner of six Super Bowls. Yet at age 42, he wants to prove more with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
He should be content.
Tom Brady should by all normal conventions be at home, raising his children, sitting by Gisele’s side as they run off the school. They should be thinking about life after retirement, albeit about 20 years earlier than most can.
Instead, Brady is trading in his New England Patriots jersey for Pewter Power and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After two decades in Foxborough and six rings, Brady is ready for his next challenge, one he detailed the reasons for expertly at The Players Tribune.
Perhaps Brady is solely leaving because he wants to try his hand at something different before hanging up the spikes. Then again, this paragraph in his piece is telling:
They’ve welcomed me as one of their own. They want to listen to what I have to say. I’m excited to be embraced fully for what I can bring to the Bucs. In turn I’m ready to embrace fully a team that is confident in what I do — and what I bring — and is willing to go on this ride with me.
Brady doesn’t clearly state it, but reading between the lines, he wanted a voice in New England. he got one in Tampa Bay. Maybe head coach Bill Belichick was simply unrelenting in holding onto power, or maybe Brady felt awkward attempting to broker for more of a say in the building he’d been in since his early 20s.
Either way, he now gets a chance to be a leader in every sense.
For the Buccaneers and Brady, a rebirth they both hope leads to glory.