Tom Brady was apparently planning to unretire for a second time earlier this year, but a kind gesture by his friends convinced the 46-year-old to stay firm this time around.
On his Instagram account, Brady shared several photos of his main highlights from 2023. At the end of the post, Brady stated that he was planning to unretire from football in May, but a surprise retirement party foiled that idea:
“(PS: The only downside to 2023 was when I was about to unretire in May and my friends threw a surprise retirement party. Kind of forced my hand 😂)”
There’s a good chance here that Brady is actually joking. After all, May would have been a peculiar time to unretire, with the draft in the books. At that point, Brady would have had a limited amount of potential landing spots.
Brady’s initial retirement in 2022 lasted just 40 days before he decided to come back for a 23rd season. Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a second straight NFC South division title in 2022, but they were ousted by the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card Round.
Brady announced his second and official retirement on Feb. 1.
