After 23 years of success, Tom Brady, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, has officially retired.

After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost by just three points in the 2021-2022 playoffs to the Los Angeles Rams, Brady called it quits the first time. The Bleacher Report even said, “The GOAT says he’s retiring ‘for good’ after 23 seasons in emotional farewell.” But he wasn’t actually done. He wanted to hang out with his kids, his wife more, blah, blah, blah- the usual when someone retires from sports or a job. But it wasn’t the same for Tom. Forty days after his retirement from the NFL, he decided he was going to come out of retirement and return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers one last year. When this happened, the marital issues between him and his wife Gisele Bundchen surfaced, as the agreement was that he would spend more time with family. But when Brady came back from retirement, Bundchen did not like that. A few months later they got divorced. After the divorce Brady went into the season and had one of his worst seasons ever. He totaled a 52.5 QBR (Quarterback Rating) which was his worst ever recorded. His Y/C (yards per completed pass) was also his worst of all time in this category at 9.6. Brady clearly had one of, if not the worst season of his life. This is all coming after his wife divorced him. 

Flash forward to the current day where Brady announced his retirement one last time Feb. 1. Currently, many people are speculating if Brady might come back to the NFL again. The two sides of the argument for him coming back are as follows: One side says he should retire. Tom Brady is 45 years old, turning 46 this year. The other side disagrees. They say that if Brady un-retires he doesn’t really have anything to lose or risk besides the basic things in football like injuries. Brady hasn’t gotten injured since 2020, which required surgery in 2021. In his retirement video he stated, “I’m retiring- for good.” It still left a lot of people thinking about if he’s misleading fans or not. It seems most likely Brady is officially retired and will not return to the NFL.

Brady is called “the GOAT” for a reason. Brady has won seven Super Bowls, five Super Bowl MVPs, three league MVPs and has the “first of all time” award for the following achievements: 89,214 regular season passing yards, 649 regular season touchdown passes, 13,400 playoff passing yards and 88 playoff touchdown passes. A few other career highs: in his first 17-game season, he threw for 5,316 yards in 2021, which is his most in a season ever. In 2007 with the New England Patriots, Brady threw for 50 touchdowns in a 16 game season; his career high in that ‘single season stat.’ 

With Brady retiring, the Buccaneers have an open quarterback spot. While the Bucs had a down season at 8-9 with Brady playing bad, without Brady, the Buccaneers might be ruined. The three seasons before Brady joined the Bucs, their total record was 17-31. The three seasons while Brady played with them, their record was 32-18. The Buccaneers had a clear increase in the three seasons they had with Brady, but with him gone they have some difficult problems to fix within their roster. Without the seven time super bowl champion on their time, multiple players are going to want to leave. What holds for the Buccaneers future?

The fact of Brady retiring, and then coming back, clearly left some speculation in the NFL fanbase. Fans have already started talking about Brady returning to the NFL, coming back for teams like the Dolphins, 49ers and other teams in serious need of a quarterback. Brady immediately snapped back at those rumors saying “Anyone who thinks I have time to come back to the NFL has never adopted a 2 month old kitten for their daughter.” Will Tom Brady come back again despite his comments?