People keep joking about Tom Brady unretiring after being home for six weeks.
Tom Brady is, without question, the greatest quarterback to ever play American football. I've never rooted for the teams he's played for (Go Seahawks!) so it pains me to say it, but the guy truly is the G.O.A.T.
The man is 44 years old, has played in the NFL for 22 years and is the winningest player the game has ever known. So when he announced his retirement from professional football on February 1, it was truly momentous. The end of an era. A new beginning, not just for him but for football fans everywhere who either reveled in or grumbled about his consistent dominance in the sport.
The only thing Brady didn't do was go out on top—at least not in the immediate sense. The most fitting retirement for Tom Brady would be to win the Super Bowl one last time, then hang up his cleats. Instead, he staged one of his epic comebacks in the divisional round playoffs, leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from a 27-3 deficit to a 27-27 tie before ultimately losing in the last second of the game to a Los Angeles Rams field goal.
That's a tough loss in general, but especially as the last game of your career. Perhaps that's what compelled Brady to change his mind and unretire just 40 days after announcing his retirement.
These past two months I\u2019ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands. That time will come. But it\u2019s not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I\u2019m coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa. Unfinished business LFGpic.twitter.com/U0yhRKVKVm— Tom Brady (@Tom Brady) 1647213180
But according to the jokesters on social media, his comeback has more to do with the realities of full-time parenting than with tying up his loose competitive ends.
Brady and his wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, have two school-aged kids and Brady also shares custody of his teen son from his earlier relationship with model and actress Bridget Moynahan. Brady has mentioned in interviews that it's difficult to balance his professional life and his home life, though he tries hard to be a present, involved parent.
The guy clearly loves his family, but the fact that he changed his mind about retiring barely a month after being home full-time was too much for the internet to resist.
As soon as Brady announced his unretirement, the jokes about parenting being harder than football started flying.
Tom Brady had to do like 6 weeks of parenting and was like you know what I\u2019d like to be hit in the head for a living— JEFF (@JEFF) 1647215199
Tom Brady spent 6 weeks being a full-time at-home dad and was like, \u201cOn second thought, I\u2019d rather have my 43yo body get slammed to the ground repeatedly by 300lb meta-humans instead.\u201d— Doyin Richards - Fully Vaccinated (@Doyin Richards - Fully Vaccinated) 1647275032
Sounds like Tom Brady had to listen to his kids talk about the Minecraft world they built.— Simon Holland (@Simon Holland) 1647227160
In fact, the Holderness Family made a spot-on parody video showing what that first day of retirement might have looked like at Tom and Gisele's house. While the world's best quarterback might be used to coordinating plays on the field, it's entirely possible he wasn't prepared for the level of multitasking and organization the homefront requires on a daily basis.
While it pokes lighthearted fun at Tom Brady, all parents will appreciate the all-too-real examples of the five-hour dance recital and the having to be two places at once depicted in this video. Parenting is a lot of work, emotionally and logistically.
How Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen's post-retirement conversation went, probably.
Surely, the ultimate competitor Tom Brady just wants another chance to win in the sport he's spent half of his life playing. But it is pretty funny to imagine the greatest quarterback of all time preferring to be pummeled by a 300 lb lineman over having to manage kids' schedules.
- Tom Brady showed up at the White House and made some pointed ... ›
- Patriots coach says 'no thanks' to Trump's desperate Medal of ... ›
- A famous scientist tries to prove Tom Brady wrong and makes a ... ›