National Football League

Is Tom Brady ready to retire from the NFL at age 44?

Updated Jan. 25, 2022 4:46 p.m. ET

After 22 seasons, more than 84,000 yards and seven Super Bowl championships, is Tom Brady finally ready to walk away from football?

The legendary quarterback, who is widely considered the greatest to ever play the position, dropped perhaps the greatest hint yet that it's a distinct possibility.

Speaking on his podcast "Let's Go," with Jim Gray, the 44-year-old Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback said:

"I think as I've gotten older, I think the best part is, is football is extremely important in my life, and it means a lot to me, and I care a lot about what we're trying to accomplish as a team, and I care a lot about my teammates.

"The biggest difference now that I'm older is I have kids now, too, you know, and I care about them a lot as well. They've been my biggest supporters. My wife is my biggest supporter. It pains her to see me get hit out there. And she deserves what she needs from me as a husband, and my kids deserve what they need from me as a dad."

Brady said he was going to spend time discussing things with his family before making a decision on the next step. And in regard to the Bucs, who had their season ended by the Los Angeles Rams in Sunday's NFC divisional-round matchup, Brady said he was "proud and satisfied of everything we accomplished this year."

That's not the type of rhetoric one would expect from Brady after any season that doesn't end in a championship, and Shannon Sharpe found that wording significant. He explained why on Tuesday's "Undisputed."

"For the first time, I heard Tom say something that I never heard him say before: He's satisfied with what he accomplished this year," Sharpe said. "He's speaking in satisfactory terms. I say it's 60 percent [likely] he retires."

According to Skip Bayless, the Buccaneers think Brady is set to retire.

"I was told last night that the Buccaneers are now in a position where they would be surprised if he played next year," he said. "When I heard that, it knocked me on my keister. … I did not see that coming."

According to FOX Bet trader Dylan Brossman, all of this points to an increased likelihood that Brady will call it a career, putting non-actionable odds at +200 that the quarterback will return next season and -250 that he will retire.

"The brain trust at FOX Bet reckons Brady will finally hang it up," Brossman said Tuesday.

Brady has a year left on his contract and has long made it known that he would like to play until age 45 or beyond, but all of that seems to be in question now. And why wouldn't it be? When it comes to legacy, there doesn't seem to be anything left for Brady to chase.

He has more championships than anyone else and is the all-time leader in passing yards (84,520) and passing touchdowns (624). His 53 game-winning drives trail only Peyton Manning's 54, and he ranks eighth all time in both passing yards per game (265.8) and passer rating (97.6).

Nick Wright, host of "First Things First," pointed out that while Brady's legacy is secure, he should not feel pressured to walk away from the sport before he is ready.

"Tom Brady, whenever he retires, is going to retire younger than, I don't know, 99.9 percent of people that ever lived?" he said.

"I don't like when athletes feel pressured to stop what they love, what has made them who they are, because you're like, ‘ah my kids.’ Your kids will understand."

LaVar Arrington pushed back, however, saying that he understands how a love of family could lead to Brady walking away from the game.

"The one thing that you do not get to redeem, you do not get to purchase more of, is time," Arrington said. "That is the greatest asset that you do not get back. Once it's gone, it's gone. … It sounds like that's starting to outweigh everything else for Tom Brady."

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Brady has faced questions such as this often in the past.

"A lot of people thought I was done playing football in 2015," he said on his podcast. "A lot of people in 2016 said, 'You're done.' A lot of people in 2018, and when I left the Patriots, they said, 'You're done.'"

Is he really done this time? It ranks as one of the NFL's biggest offseason mysteries.