Jay Williams urges Tom Brady to retire rather than reunite with Bill Belichick
There's no telling what Tom Brady's future plans are. He's 45 and will be 46 before next season begins. He just went through a divorce and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bad.
Thanks to his contract ending, he can pretty much do whatever he wants in the offseason. He could retire, re-sign and run it back with the Buccaneers or go elsewhere.
Rumors of a reunion with Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots have started to fly as a result. Many would love to see those two get back together.
ESPN analyst Jay Williams is not one of those people, though. In fact, he'd rather see the seven-time Super Bowl winner retire than go back to New England:
"I'd rather see Tom Brady retire than go back. I don't want to see him get beat up and taken off the field in a cart. I don't. But if you're forcing me to address the question. I would say that, look, Bill Belichick will probably. He would receive or he would appreciate it more right at the end of the day."
He continued, adding that the quarterback winning without Belichick doesn't mean all that much:
"Tom Brady - Regardless of whether you like it or not, people like Max Kellerman are going to use the information that Tom won a championship, even though it came into a situation that was pre ready, it was turnkey."
"But he won a chip without Bill Belichick and there is one playoff win that Bill Belichick has had without Tom Brady. So if that led to multiple playoff wins, Bill Belichick would probably have an advantage in that with Tom Brady returning."
Many around the league think there's a real chance the legendary quarterback returns for one more run in New England.
Is Tom Brady returning to the New England Patriots in 2023?
If the future Hall of Famer doesn't retire and decides not to try again with the Buccaneers, it's hard to imagine any team having a better shot at landing him than his former team.
He's familiar with the staff for the most part. He obviously has a relationship, a very strong one, with Belichick. They have a stout defense and enough offensive weapons.
It would be much simpler to go back home than to start anew at age 46, which makes a reunion even more likely.