Brady's flip-flop: He can't resist being the story

Only Tom Brady can upstage a big day in sports by "unretiring," although many observers maintain the the former Patriots and now current (again) Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback never was actually serious about retiring, despite his announcement on Feb. 1.
Brady did just that on Sunday (March 13), as on the day that the brackets for the NCAA's men's and women's March Madness basketball tournament were announced --- and while the Boston Celtics were holding an elaborate ceremony to retire Kevin Garnett's No. 5 -- Brady said "never mind" about his earlier "retirement" announcement.
Brady, only 40 days after his Feb. 1 announcement on his Instagram account that he wouldn't be back for another football season, said on Twitter that he's decided that now isn't the time to retire and he belongs on the football field. That means that when Brady plays in the Bucs' opener in September at the age of 45, he'll be the oldest quarterback to ever start an NFL game.
In a column that I wrote for the March edition of Jewish Rhode Island in Providence, I had this observation about Brady, including eating some crow for suggesting two years ago that by not retiring then, he was tempting fate by risking an end-of-career injury.

Brady proved me wrong: Two years ago, in February 2020, I wrote that Brady was challenging Father Time by not calling it a career instead of becoming a free agent. Brady, of course, left the Pats and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he won his seventh Super Bowl. He retired Feb. 1, although there’s been speculation that Brady’s retirement may be short-lived.

Now: I think Brady is still risking a catastrophic injury by returning to the game at age 45, but it may take Brady getting hurt beyond repair for him to realize that he's not indestructible.
All athletes --- even Brady despite how well he takes care of himself --- eventually break down. It may not be in the upcoming season, but if he insists on playing beyond 2022, the chances of him ending his career on his own terms will decrease as the probability of a bad injury will increase.
I wish him well in his return to the game. Michael Jordan and Roger Clemens retired and then returned to pro basketball and baseball, respectively, before finally calling it quits. But if Brady continues to think that he's indestructible, he'll have a rude awakening sooner rather than later.
The truth is that even Tom Brady isn't immune from suffering an injury that could end his career.




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