Tom Brady says he needs time with family before deciding NFL future

Tom Brady has been a constant in the NFL for 22 years. After seven Super Bowl championships, 15 Pro Bowls and three MVP awards with two teams, the G.O.A.T., as he’s been called, might be ready to call it a career. Or at least that’s what he said he’ll figure out now that he and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers are done for the season.

“I’m gonna spend some time with [my family] and give them what they need,” Brady said Monday on the “Lets Go!” podcast with Jim Gray. “They’ve really been giving me what I need the last six months to do what I love to do. I said this a few years ago, it’s what relationships are all about. It’s not always what I want. It’s what we want as a family. And I’m gonna spend a lot of time with them and figure out in the future what’s next.”

Brady, 44, previously said he planned to play until his age-45 season. He and his Bucs lost to the L.A. Rams Sunday in the final four seconds of their divisional round game, on a field goal that pulled the Rams ahead 30-27.

Despite the heartbreaking loss for Brady and the Bucs, now unable to repeat as Super Bowl champions, the veteran quarterback told Gray he still could finish his career “proud and satisfied.” (Brady also said even though all his postseason losses hurt, his loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII stuck out: ”That’s probably the only one that I could go ‘Man, that one really would have been incredible.’”)

“I’ve literally given everything I had this year, last year, the year before that, the year before that,” Brady said. “I don’t leave anything half-ass, you know? I think I leave it with everything that I have ... I feel like I give everything I can to my teammates. Although, it is divided attention as you get older, because there’s different priorities and responsibilities in life and I have things happening outside of football that require some time and energy.”

For now, he does not plan to rush his decision and will take time to, first, unwind from the last six months of football.

“When the time comes to think about post-career and second career, I’ll think about those things,” Brady said when asked about what’s next for him. “It’s just when you’re 44, I guess you get asked about that a lot.”

Brady has played a career 318 games since his rookie debut with the New England Patriots in 2000. He brought a championship to the Bucs in just his first year with them, the Bucs’ second franchise Super Bowl win.