NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said Monday he is still undecided about his future and hasn’t made a decision about his retirement.
“I’m just still going through the process that I said I was going through,” Brady said on his SiriusXM podcast late Monday.
“Sometimes, it takes some time to really evaluate how you feel, what you want to do, and I think when the time is right, I’ll be ready to make a decision, one way or the other, just like I said last week.”
He added, “I understand my decision affects a lot of people’s lives so when that decision comes, it’ll come.”
The seven-time Super Bowl champion is under contract for 2022 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady expressed disappointment that media coverage of his possible retirement overshadowed the NFL’s conference championship games over the weekend.
“We’re in such an era of information and people want to be in front of the news often, and I totally understand that and understand that’s the environment we’re in,” Brady said. “But I think for me, it’s literally day to day with me. I’m trying to do the best I can every day and evaluate things as they come, and I’m trying to make a great decision for me and my family.”
“I’ll know when the time’s right,” he said. “When I know, I’ll know and when I don’t know, I don’t know, and I’m not going to race to some conclusion about that.”
Brady, 44, has previously said he wanted to spend more time with his wife, model Gisele Bundchen, and three children.
His latest comments come two days after ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported that he was retiring after 22 seasons. Meanwhile, the NFL issued a post congratulatory of Brady.
TB12sports, Brady’s health and wellness company, wrote on Twitter after the ESPN report’s publication: “7 Super Bowl Rings. 5 Super Bowl MVPs. 3 League MVP Awards. 22 Incredible Seasons. Thank you for it all, @TomBrady.” The post was interpreted by many as a suggestion that Brady is looking to retire in the near future.
TB12sports deleted the Twitter post shortly after, but ESPN and NFL Network continued reporting that Brady had played his last game.
Don Yee, Brady’s agent, told news outlets in a statement on Jan. 29 that he couldn’t confirm a Brady retirement. However, he also did not deny that Brady was leaving the NFL.
On the same day, Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr., told KRON-TV that his son is not retiring.
Brady’s father also told NFL Network, “Tommy has not made a final decision one way or the other, and anybody else that says that he has is absolutely wrong.”
Meanwhile, Brady’s mother told an NBC station in the San Francisco area that “I think his family would know first.”
