Tom Brady took an unexpected and very mysterious leave of absence from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right in the middle of camp. It was later revealed that Brady's hiatus may have had something to do with marital problems at home as rumors about a possible divorce from his wife Gisele Bundchen emerged.
If you really think about it, this isn't very shocking at all. When Brady retired a few months back, there was a lot of talk about the GOAT making this decision for his wife and his family. Brady reportedly wanted to spend more time with his loved ones after what has been an illustrious 22-year career in the NFL. All of a sudden, TB12 announced his decision to un-retire, which was seen by many as an indication of his desire to play overpowering his need to be with his family.
On a recent episode of his Let’s Go! podcast on SiriusXM, the Buccaneers quarterback opened up about his thought process whenever he returns for another season. Without directly saying it, Brady seems to have dropped a major hint as to why he opted to come back for another year (h/t Mike Florio of PFT):
“I almost look at like a football season like you’re going away on deployment in the military, and it’s like, man, here I go again,” Brady said. “There’s only one way to do it. And I think Jim, we’ve talked from time to time just about how do you enjoy the certain moments of it? The reality is you can really only be authentic to yourself, right? Whenever you may say, ‘Oh man, I want to, you know, make sure I spend a little more time doing this.’ When it comes down to it, your competitiveness takes over and as much as you want to have this playful balance with the work balance, you’re going to end up doing exactly what you’ve always done, which is why you are who you are. You’re going to go, ‘how do I get it done?' You know, ‘what do I got to do to get it done?'”
To be clear, Tom Brady did not say that he un-retired because he chose football over his family. That would be too hasty a conclusion to make based on this quote alone.
Then again, TB12 did say that at the end of the day, it's his competitiveness that takes over. All things considered, it's not very difficult to read between the lines here.
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