Could Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady Play Beyond 45? 'Definitely.'
Tom Brady's Super Bowl LV media day press conference featured the occasional, perhaps expected question about his eventual retirement.
Brady, 43, has been asked about it before, a lot. Probably more than he'd prefer to be. But, six days removed from his tenth Super Bowl appearance - his first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - those questions were going to come.
And if there was one thing that he made clear, answering each one: He doesn't plan on hanging up the cleats anytime soon. In fact, Brady said that he would consider playing past the age of 45, a milestone he set a goal for while speaking with Sports Illustrated in 2017.
"Yeah, definitely. I would definitely consider that," Brady said on Monday. "It's a physical sport, and just the perspective I have on that is you never know kind of when that moment is, just because it's a contact sport. There's a lot of training that goes into it, and again, it has to be 100 percent commitment from myself to keep doing it.
“I’ve been very fortunate over the years," Brady remarked. "[Personal trainer] Alex [Guerrerro] and I work really hard at making sure physically I can still perform at my best because you take different hits, over the course of the year deal with different bumps and bruises, different injuries and so forth. It’s just going to be me continuing to make that commitment to making it part of my year-round process to play football and continue my career.”
Brady appears 100 percent committed, leading Tampa Bay to its first playoff appearance since 2007, and first Super Bowl since the 2002-03 season, in his inaugural year rocking Buccaneer red and pewter.
Showing no signs of slowing down, Brady would post the second-most touchdowns in a single season in his career, with 40. Connecting with a wide array of passing game targets including wide receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Antonio Brown - along with fellow former New England Patriot, tight end Rob Gronkowski - Brady completed 65.7 percent of his passes for 4,633 yards.
Brady doesn't exactly have a reason to think about retiring at this point. He made it seem as if that was the case, as well.
“When to walk away, that’s a good question,” Brady said. “I think I’ll know when it’s time. So, I don’t know when that time will come but I think I’ll know, and I’ll understand that I gave everything I could to get to this game. You put a lot into it. I don’t think I can ever go at this game half-assed. I’ve got to put everything into it.
“When I put it all out there and I feel like I can’t do that anymore, I don’t feel like I can commit to the team in the way that the team needs me, then I think that’s probably time to walk away.”
