The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had some advance notice about Tom Brady’s plan before he released the video announcing his retirement, but it apparently wasn’t much.
For the second offseason in a row, the legendary NFL quarterback is calling it a career. He reneged on that decision last winter, but this time around seems more permanent.
It was never a surprise that retirement was on the table for Brady. He just finished his age-45 season, one that saw the Bucs underwhelm wire-to-wire, ultimately getting smacked by the Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs. His personal life was turbulent as well, with he and Gisele Bundchen getting a divorce.
Even when the season ended, Brady didn’t drop many hints -- outside of going off on Jim Gray (though that almost sounded staged). Ultimately, he made his announcement a year to the day from the last time he said he was hanging up his cleats.
Still, the Bucs were a little surprised by the timing, Tampa Bay Times Bucs insider Rick Stroud suggested Thursday on the “Rich Eisen Show.”
“I don’t know (if they were surprised) about the video – they were told two hours or so before that. I think they were surprised by the timing. I think they thought he had said he was going to take a little more time this year than he did,” Stroud said. “So from that standpoint maybe a little bit (of surprise), and disappointed a little bit.
“But surprised? I mean, if you lived what Brady experienced … it was a lot. He suffered. All that went on in his personal life, trying to prepare, the football team wasn’t good enough for him to excel in a lot of areas. It was just really a heavy lift.”
Brady was a free agent this offseason, and it didn’t look like he was going to have the most robust market. In the end, it was plausible that if he wanted to continue playing, it was going to have to be with the Bucs.
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