ICYMI: Tom Brady talks about what scares him the most when it comes to retirement
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is back for his 23rd NFL season. The 44-year-old announced his decision to retire after the Super Bowl, but the move didn't last long.
After roughly 40 days of retirement, the seven-time Super Bowl champ announced that he was coming back for another season. Many thought this was always a possibility but it still came as a shock. However, an interview with "60 Minutes" back in 2005 shed light on why it may have been difficult for Brady to walk away from the game.
In the interview hosted by Steve Kroft, the quarterback was asked about what scares or intimidates him.
Tom Brady said:
“The end of my playing career, big time. Because I guess have done this for so long and I don’t know what I feel like in the offseason, that I am always trying to figure out ways to have a day that is filled with things that I like to do and when I am playing football for those seven months out of the year, it’s easy.”
He added:
“I mean I get up, come in here, not it’s easy to work hard, not that it’s easy to show up everyday and do that job, but you're focused. You got a goal, you got something you’re trying to accomplish. When that is done, you don’t have 80,000 people screaming your name, I mean what’s is gonna be, I don’t know.”
Brady concluded:
“I have heard a lot about astronauts that go to the moon and come back and they’re so depressed because there’s nothing they can do in their lives that will ever, fill them the way that does.”
Tom Brady can't stay away from football
Many were in shock when the 44-year-old retired, but as we now know, it didn't last long. Tom Brady is a competitive beast. Having played professional football for over two decades, walking away from something that has given him so much was always going to be a tall order.
These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands. That time will come. But it’s not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I’m coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa. Unfinished business LFG https://t.co/U0yhRKVKVm
Now entering a remarkable 23rd season, there isn't much the seven-time Super Bowl champion hasn't accomplished. The hunt for ring number eight is clearly what drives him. Whether he gets it this year with the Buccaneers remains to be seen, but after revisiting that 2005 interview, we all now get a sense of why Brady found it so hard to walk away from football.