Considering Tom Brady’s status as the best of the best, it was far from surprising that his retirement from the sport wound up being preempted. As the Buccaneers began their playoff run, there were loud whispers of his desire to hang up his jersey should he wind up claiming a second straight and record eighth career Super Bowl championship. At 44 and widely acknowledged as the greatest of all time, he no longer had anything left to prove, and he aimed to leave while at the top in order to further underscore his ascendancy.
In the aftermath of the Buccaneers’ divisional round loss, Brady noted that he needed to take stock of where he stood before making a decision on his future. Not long after, however, news was rife that he had already made up his mind to bid goodbye to football — prompted in no small measure by a tweet from TB12 Sports, his own company, that seemed to point to his exit. He then debunked speculation, or, to be more precise, sort of debunked speculation by saying he still hadn’t made a choice one way or the other. Everybody now knows that he had already made up his mind, of course; he was just trying to pin down the right date to announce it. And given his myriad successes on the field, there was certainly irony in his inability to time his departure properly.
True, Brady’s move was still second guessed, in part because of previous pronouncements that he deemed himself fit to play until he’s 45, and in part due to his wish to make history. And when the Buccaneers fell short last month, fans hoped — perhaps against hope — that he would be inclined to take another shot at the ring. Then again, it was also clear to all and sundry that anything he would have done after last year’s triumph signified mere icing on the cake.
Not that Brady will permanently avoid the klieg lights. His competitive nature will simply not allow him to shun his celebrity and enjoy domestic bliss. As he disclosed in an Instagram post that formally put his cleats to storage the other day, “the future is exciting. I’m fortunate to have co-founded incredible companies… that I am excited to continue to help build and grow.” Which is to tantamount to saying he has moved the goalposts, not forgotten about them altogether.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
