Tom Brady had some interesting things to say during the final episode of his “Tom vs. Time” Facebook docuseries, including what some concluded were comments that led some to believe he’s feeling conflicted about his NFL career.
Adding fuel to that fire, Gotham Chopra, who was the filmmaker for the series, recently said he doesn’t envision Brady following through with his previous spoken desire about wanting to play into his mid-40s.
“This idea that he’s going to play for four or five more seasons … I mean, this is just me, the guy who’s been around him for a while now. I just have a hard time envisioning that, to be candid,” Chopra recently said on ‘The MMQB Podcast with Peter King.’ “But we’ll see. I do think that these next few weeks and months are a critical time for him.”
On Sunday, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked about all this, and he offered a standard Belichickian response.
“I’ve had direct conversations with Tom, many times obviously through a long period of time,” Belichick said, per Mike Reiss of ESPN. I’ll rely on those conversations that I have with him directly rather than something else. Tom and I have always had a good line of communication. We’ve always been able to talk directly to each other. I don’t see that changing. So I’ll rely on those instead of anything else.”
Remember, there was a lot of chatter that Belichick could be done in New England, too. So this could be a lot of smoke without any real fire.
It’s not hard to wonder if the dynasty that Belichick and Brady have put together is starting to crumble. Rob Gronkowski still hasn’t given anyone his answer about whether he’ll be back or retire ahead of the 2018 season, and Brady will be 41 years old when it begins. Furthermore, New England lost some key players in free agency.
That said, Brady has been pretty adamant about wanting to play at least a few more years, and it seems clear he still has passion for the game.