Brady Offers Career Advice to Rodgers

Tom Brady and Steve Young discussed Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers’ future during Brady’s SiriusXM podcast.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jan 10, 2023 3:07 PM EST

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Aaron Rodgers contemplating his football future, another living-legend quarterback, Tom Brady, offered some advice.

Take your time to decide.

“Those are absolutely legitimate feelings and emotions,” Brady said of Rodgers’ postgame news conference following Sunday’s season-ending loss to the Detroit Lions. “I think the important thing is the day after the season – and I made this mistake [during his brief retirement] – is not to decide the future.

“Aaron, in my belief, is spectacular. He can obviously continue to play and he has all the ability in the world to do that. And there’s a lot of other things that come into play and he’ll make that decision when it’s right for him. And everyone should give him the time and space to do it.”

Brady was speaking on his podcast, Let’s Go! With Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray, on SiriusXM. Joining him on the show were two Hall of Fame, quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Steve Young.

“I love his honesty,” Young said. “He’s been completely honest and open and vulnerable over the last few years. It’s amazing to hear him speak. I mean, people can love or hate it, but it’s open.”

For Rodgers, who turned 39 this season, the key factor will be whether he can summon the energy and commitment to “gear up for another grind.”

Young didn’t have that luxury. Concussions knocked him from the game at 38. Retirement brought a new reality.

“When you’re the best at something in the world one day and then you leave the game and the next day you’re not that anymore, you find out, ‘You know what? I’m not actually even good at anything else,” Young said with a laugh. “So, you end up wanting so much to go back to the thing I was great at. Not because you want the adulation or people to tell you you’re great. There’s something that you’re great at and, as a human being you want, like, that’s my highest and best use.

“What he’s contemplating is a really difficult thing. And people have no idea that haven’t been there and felt that and have to deal with it. And I always tell people, the next day you’re at the bottom of a cliff in a broken sack of bones. And then you’ve got to stand up and start doing something different. But it’s never going to be the same. It’ll never be as all-encompassing, every bit of yourself poured out every week. There’s nothing like it.”

Last offseason, Rodgers made his decision with a little more than a week until the start of free agency. That gave the team time to figure out its salary cap. Presumably, Rodgers will make his decision before free agency starts this year on March 15.

“I’m not going to hold them hostage,” Rodgers said. “I understand, we’re still in January here, March is free agency, so I just need some time to, like I said, get the emotion out of it and figure out what’s best.”