I used to be a big Tom Brady fan, but now I just don’t know.

While it may have been my New England heritage, I fell hard down the TB12 rabbit hole over the 20 years he was leading the Patriots to nine Super Bowls and six championships.

Sure, he was the Yankees, old Celtics, Flyers and Duke all wrapped into one for those not taken with Tom Terrific. People said he was arrogant, too tough on his teammates who weren’t performing up to his standards (after all, who could?), was full of hot air barking at officials and was passing footballs with less air.

But Brady was the perfect legend to everyone with New England ties. They believed when he didn’t succeed in the two Super Bowl losses to the Giants and the one to the Eagles, it was the defense that let the Patriots down. And so far, he is way ahead in the debate over whether Brady or Belichick made the Pats great.

When he became a free agent after the 2019 season, I agreed he had lost whatever weapons the team had given him in the past and was not surprised when Tampa Bay signed him. I also wasn’t shocked when he supposedly retired at 44 after the Bucs’ defense fell apart and lost the NFC title to the Rams.

The announcement, or breaking news, was handled poorly and maybe Brady himself leaked it to the press to upstage the big game he thought he should have been playing in again. And when he began waffling, I figured he’s not done with football.

But this time helped me slide off the Brady bubble, tweeting that he was coming back for another season in the middle of NCAA tournament selection weekend. Not sure how he should have done it, but this time just did not smell right.

What may have happened after he got back from the new movie he is making and had that family meeting, it probably went down something like this with Gisele and the kids.

“You know when Dad isn’t playing, and you want to go to a game, there won’t always be a luxury suite with all those free hot dogs and Cokes. And soon all the kids will stop talking about your old man.”

Or his way of saying TB12 needed to keep proving it until he was 45, or longer, and get the gang to go along.

 

Photo via AP Photo/Mark LoMoglio.

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