Now that Tom Brady has captured his fifth Super Bowl and was named the game’s MVP for a record fourth time, there are some who feel he has nothing left to accomplish. Brady is already widely considered the greatest quarterback of all time, so perhaps he should just retire.
That’s not going to happen anytime soon.
In a fantastic interview with Peter King of The MMQB, Brady spoke about how his body feels better at age 39 than it did at 25. He maintains that he wants to play into his mid-40s, but the future Hall of Famer knows that is a lofty goal. Still, Brady is confident in saying the 2017 season won’t be his last.
“I’d like to play until my mid-forties,” he told King. “Then I’ll make a decision. If I’m still feeling like I’m feeling today, who knows? Now those things can always change. You do need long-term goals too. I know next year is not going to be my last year.”
Brady lives an incredibly strict lifestyle, both with his diet and exercise routine. He has made it very clear that passing some of that onto other athletes will be his next venture in life after football, but football remains his life for now.
“Other than playing football, the other thing I love to do is prepare to play football,” Brady said. “I’ve worked hard to get a system in place that really works for me and I know could work for everybody else if they just did it. That enables me to play 99 plays [in Super Bowl 51, the most of his career in one game] as a 39-year-old in the last game of the season … Football to me is more than just a sport. It has become my life. Every choice that I make … what I have for breakfast, how I work out, all of those things. I love the game. I love playing.”
We know one very important person in Brady’s life who wouldn’t mind if the QB retired, but it is not happening anytime soon. At this point, Brady is simply separating himself from the pack. The best quarterback debate should have already ended, but imagine if he wins a sixth title? You’d be foolish to rule it out.
