Brady is back….back again

E5 Yaz

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I'm glad he's playing again, but the "unfinished business" remark is bullshit.
 

Ed Hillel

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Why? They would have beat the Rams if they were healthy and probably gone on to the SB.
Well, if you believe he tried to leverage a fake retirement to get traded away to San Fran, it’s definitely phony. That’s speculative, of course, but a reasonable conclusion.
 

Shelterdog

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The avg dad here has one up on Tom. This dude legit took 2 months off, spent time with his family and kids and was like "i cant do this".
Kind of an aside but I saw a lot of this early pandemic. Everyone says they love their kids but I saw a lot of high achieving people who don't normally spend a lot of time with their kids realize that being a present parent is kind of hard and annoying and can kind of suck, at least relative to one's cool job. Trying to get his kid to do homework or the chores or whatever is likely not as fun or rewarding as being the GOAT, performing in front of 60k people, having elite professionals and an enitre organization working with you, etc.
 

E5 Yaz

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Why? They would have beat the Rams if they were healthy and probably gone on to the SB.
They won a Super Bowl in his first season there. The only "unfinished business" could be that they didn't repeat. So he's coming back to win two in a row?
 

cornwalls@6

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Hot take alert: Arians will announce his retirement in a few weeks, for family/health reasons, and Leftwich will be elevated to head coach. That was the point of the "retirement"all along, and that's what the Glazers promised him in Manchester over the weekend. They'll reward Bruce handsomely to step aside, and wait a little while to announce, to avoid the appearance of quid pro quo. The 49ers were never in play.
 

tims4wins

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Hot take alert: Arians will announce his retirement in a few weeks, for family/health reasons, and Leftwich will be elevated to head coach. That was the point of the "retirement"all along, and that's what the Glazers promised him in Manchester over the weekend. They'll reward Bruce handsomely to step aside, and wait a little while to announce, to avoid the appearance of quid pro quo. The 49ers were never in play.
 

Toe Nash

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They won a Super Bowl in his first season there. The only "unfinished business" could be that they didn't repeat. So he's coming back to win two in a row?
He wants to win the super bowl he fell short of winning last year.

Also, it's just a PR statement. Of course there are no actual accomplishments that are really left for him. Sheesh
 

Mystic Merlin

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Hot take alert: Arians will announce his retirement in a few weeks, for family/health reasons, and Leftwich will be elevated to head coach. That was the point of the "retirement"all along, and that's what the Glazers promised him in Manchester over the weekend. They'll reward Bruce handsomely to step aside, and wait a little while to announce, to avoid the appearance of quid pro quo. The 49ers were never in play.
Seems like a pretty high wire act if that’s how it played out. Arians is no idiot, what if he goes kicking and screaming?

And who WOULDN’T think that Brady pushed Arians out? Delaying that separation a few months isn’t gonna throw many (any?) off the scent.
 

cornwalls@6

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Seems like a pretty high wire act if that’s how it played out. Arians is no idiot, what if he goes kicking and screaming?

And who WOULDN’T think that Brady pushed Arians out? Delaying that separation a few months isn’t gonna throw many (any?) off the scent.
It would be premised on Arians having already agreed, before Brady announcing his return yesterday. But yes, it was a bit of a fun speculation on my part. Though I don’t believe he actually had a change of heart after a few weeks of the offseason. I do think his retirement was a leverage ploy of some sort, but not really sure what his goal was, or what concessions might’ve be made by the Bucs.
 

JimD

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Good for Tom, he realizes that he wants to keep doing something he loves while he still can, and we get to watch him for at least one more NFL season. Win-win.

Plain and simple, I think the guy couldn't turn it off - the drive to be the very best at the pinnacle of athletic performance, the camaraderie in the locker room and being part of a team, the maniacal fitness and nutritional regimen, all of it. He's going to be miserable when the day finally arrives that he essentially has no choice in the matter anymore, but that day is not today.
 

RG33

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When lifelong Patriots fans are finding reasons like “still wants to play football” to be annoyed/mad/haters on Tom Brady, I guess it is easier to understand how the world hated Tom Brady for so long despite him being like the best human being to be a superstar in the NFL for 20 years, ever.
 

Deathofthebambino

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I'll just be beating a dead horse at this point.

More Tom Brady on the football field makes me happy.

The end.
 

Mooch

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Cappa just signed with the Bengals. With Marpet retiring, the middle of that Bucs line suddenly looks pretty shaky. I think that Jensen is a bit overrated as a center.
 

54thMA

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I'm glad he's playing again, but the "unfinished business" remark is bullshit.
He owes to the Bucs fans whom he adores to win another Super Bowl.

After being around them full time for 41 days with no more football in sight, I predict he'll play until the last of his kids has gone off to college.
 

54thMA

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Cappa just signed with the Bengals. With Marpet retiring, the middle of that Bucs line suddenly looks pretty shaky. I think that Jensen is a bit overrated as a center.
He got the memo too late that Brady was coming back.

Gronk got it, luckily he's got someone to translate for him.

The face Brady made in the video with Ronaldo was a massive tell.
 

McBride11

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Well played.

Unlike the Patriots in both of those shitshows.
touche

So everyone who is excited Tom is back is like Skip Bayless? Cause he was thrilled this morning that Tom is back. Even wore a Tampa jersey on the show.
Shows how bad some of the responses were when even Skip gives praise for being able to see the greatest nfl player of all take a few more snaps.
 

dynomite

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I'll just be beating a dead horse at this point.

More Tom Brady on the football field makes me happy.

The end.
Missed opportunity for beating a dead goat?

But I completely agree, for the record. I have a hard and fast rule that if you win 6 Super Bowls for the Patriots or 3 World Series for the Red Sox you can basically do anything you want thereafter and I will heartily support it. Source: I bought David Ortiz salsa.

Now I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth it to try to get a group together to go see him play somewhere next year.
 

johnmd20

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So everyone who is excited Tom is back is like Skip Bayless? Cause he was thrilled this morning that Tom is back. Even wore a Tampa jersey on the show.
Yes, the way they reacted to the news was straight out of Bayless' playbook of slinging nuclear level takes. The fact that Bayless worse a TB jersey is obviously irrelevant to my point. But you probably knew that.
 

DGreenwood

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Hot take alert: Arians will announce his retirement in a few weeks, for family/health reasons, and Leftwich will be elevated to head coach. That was the point of the "retirement"all along, and that's what the Glazers promised him in Manchester over the weekend. They'll reward Bruce handsomely to step aside, and wait a little while to announce, to avoid the appearance of quid pro quo. The 49ers were never in play.
What if it's a little less drastic than that, and the agreement is that Arians will leave Brady and Leftwich alone to run the offense? I could see Brady telling the owners that this challenge/freedom to do things his way is exciting enough to make him want to keep playing, otherwise he's walking away.
 

cornwalls@6

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What if it's a little less drastic than that, and the agreement is that Arians will leave Brady and Leftwich alone to run the offense? I could see Brady telling the owners that this challenge/freedom to do things his way is exciting enough to make him want to keep playing, otherwise he's walking away.
I think that's probably a pretty good guess, given the reports of tension between the 3 parties towards the end of the season. And, of course, Brady's fully earned the right to have Peyton-like de facto OC status at this stage of his career.
 

Van Everyman

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So are we ever going to get the backstory on why he did this? Love Tom but I’m not really buying that he just changed his mind.
 

CouchsideSteve

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Wouldn’t Occam’s razor suggest he just changed his mind? All else equal, he’d love to play forever, but knows he’s balancing family demands and a desire to go out before he starts to suck. He read the tea leaves, saw the team was heading for cap issues and likely roster turnover, and figured it was a natural end point. And a non-binding one at that. (He was also probably a little burned out after two COVID seasons.)

He missed it more than he realized. Some assurances from the team about kicking cap issues down the road persuaded him they could still win in a shallow NFC. But for the plan to work, free agents needed to know he’s committed.

I’m not a Patriots fan, but it’s been an absolute treat to watch him throughout his career and I’m glad it’s continuing. Same as I pull for LeBron, Trout, Federer, Serena, Tiger — or hell, even Al Michaels — to keep it rolling. I find it really compelling to see athletes push unexplored boundaries.
 

Dim13

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The mucky muck

Ralphwiggum

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I guess the behind the scenes story of what happened might be interesting, but it also might be boring. Maybe he thought he was done with football but when the reality of retirement hit him he decided he didnt want to go out while still playing at an MVP level. I guess I just don’t know why it matters. Root for him or don’t, who really cares, but I find it weird that people feel entitled to his thought process around this.
 

Old Fart Tree

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I have a hard and fast rule that if you win 6 Super Bowls for the Patriots or 3 World Series for the Red Sox you can basically do anything you want thereafter and I will heartily support it.
The mere notion that anyone else on this site feels differently boggles my fucking mind. Do you REMEMBER how shitty they were before he got here? (Yes, and Belichick too, don’t get me started)

I literally don’t understand how any Pats fan could react like “ewwwwww I don’t like how he did [X]” unless [X] is a grisly murder-suicide instead of like “Tom you won us six Super Bowls, you’re definitely a weirdo and some kind of psychopath but hey, most of the greats are so you do you.”

Here’s the thing: Tom Brady isn’t even my favorite patriot of all time! I’ve never owned his jersey! (Only Teddy Johnson’s 52). But it’s absolutely insane to me that people are picking nits over this stupid bullshit. HES TOM FUCKING BRADY

good grief
 

mwonow

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Spoke with a Bills fan yesterday. He was distraught at TB's return, kind of like he was one of the fringe cast members in a horror film where the maniac just won't die. And also, sad that the Gronk window slammed shut.

TB, still doing damage to AFC East fans three years after becoming a more perfect version of Florida Man