Recently Unretired Tom Brady: "I Know I'm at the End of My Career"

For someone who said as recently as three months ago that he didn’t want a farewell tour because it would be too “distracting,” Tom Brady certainly spends a lot of time and energy talking about when his day of playing football will be over.

Speaking with ESPN in advance of the release of his new golf collection, Brady, who just announced his return to football about a month ago after spending approximately 40 days as a former NFL player, said he decided it was time to come back to the game because his body was still up to challenge and he felt “there was still a place for me on the field.”

But Brady, who will be 45 by the time the season starts, also spoke out of the other side of his mouth and said he knows the end of his career is just around the corner.

“I know I don’t have a lot left, I really do. I know I’m at the end of my career,” he said. “I wish you could go forever, but it’s just not and football comes at too high of a cost now. My kids are getting older and it’s just getting harder and harder to miss these things. But, I wanted to give myself and my teammates and our organization another incredible opportunity to accomplish something that we’d all be very proud of.”

If Brady is really as committed to Tampa Bay as an organization as he’s led us to believe, it would probably make sense for him to sign an extension with the Buccaneers to give the team some assurances that he won’t bolt when free agency begins next offseason. However, if Brady were to do that, he’d be painting himself into a corner and eliminating his chances of extending his career with a new team for his age-46 season in the NFL.

Brady made that mistake before and ended up losing out on an opportunity to join the Miami Dolphins in the AFC East, a move the seven-time Super Bowl winner was reportedly seriously interested in making. That plan got derailed for a number of reasons, prompting Brady to elect to return to Tampa after the organization made the move to promote ex-defensive coordinator Todd Bowles to head coach following the (forced) retirement of former head coach Bruce Arians.

“I knew my body, physically, could still do what it could do and obviously I have a love for the game, I think I’ll always have a love for the game,” Brady said. It seems he’ll also always have a love for talking about leaving the game.