Tom Brady, Sr. Says Son’s Future With Patriots is “Bill’s Decision”

Could this be the end of Tom Brady’s time in New England?

Tom Brady
Tom Brady in 2017. (Getty)
Jeffrey Beall/Creative Commons

With only a few games left in the current NFL season, many football pundits and New England Patriots fans have been left wondering what, exactly, the future holds for Tom Brady. Brady’s contract could result in him being a free agent after this season, and while it’s difficult to imagine Brady playing somewhere else, the lack of concrete news one way or another has prompted a host of speculation.

Writing for the Boston Herald, Karen Guregian talked with someone who has more insight than most into Brady’s next move: his father, Tom Brady, Sr. But even Brady pere seemed to be in more of a speculative mode than anything else.

“It’s hard for me to envision him playing somewhere else,” Brady Sr. said. “He wants to play. But ultimately, it’s Bill’s decision.” 

Guregian also noted that Brady Sr. had been more pessimistic about his son’s future in the past, observing that Patriots coach Bill Belichick has a penchant for cutting older players from the squad. 

If this is the twilight of Brady’s time in New England, it’s the end of a historic combination of player and team. But it would also be the latest landmark in a career based around eluding the effects of aging. 

“In effect, Brady is bent on nothing less than subverting the standard expectations of how long a superstar quarterback can play like one,” wrote Mark Leibovich in a profile of Brady for The New York Times Magazine published almost five years ago. A 2018 article in The New York Times noted, “Brady’s going about his business also means building a business for his life after football.” 

Whether that life after football will begin sooner rather than later remains to be seen.

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