With the Quarterback Merry-Go-Round spinning so fast, you really didn’t expect Tom Brady to sit back and watch instead of climbing on board, did you?
Brady ended his 40-day retirement with the announcement that he isn’t done after all and that he will be back for a 23rd NFL season. No surprise there with all those other signal callers getting all the attention.
After all, Brady is the oft-anointed great of all time, Otto Graham, Sid Luckman and Sammy Baugh notwithstanding. Those guys were leather helmet era players. Brady is the best of the moderns, even though he lost three Super Bowls and Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw never did, going a perfect 4-0 in those games.
So here was Brady, relaxing in retirement while Aaron Rodgers was pulling down a $200 million contract from Green Bay and Russell Wilson was getting traded to Denver for a fistful of players and draft choices. And don’t forget Carson Wentz getting traded from Indianapolis to Washington and DeShaun Watson cleared of criminal charges in Houston and almost certain to be traded somewhere. How about Mitchell Trubisky, who ends up in Pittsburgh.
It’s enough to keep your head spinning and we can’t have that without Brady poking his dimpled chin into the discussion.
“These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands,’’ Brady announced on social media.
So, on March Madness’ Selection Sunday, a day that belongs to college basketball, Brady dropped his bombshell. It came on the day before NFL teams can dip into the free agent pool, releasing Tampa Bay from having to search for a successor just yet. The Bucs are certainly gratified to learn that Brady will be back with them for another spin.
Unless he won’t.
There is a lot of chatter in NFL circles that Brady has his eye on the San Francisco 49ers, whose Jimmy Garoppolo experiment may have expired. Garoppolo has taken the ‘Niners to two Super Bowls but he hasn’t won either of them and he lacks the glamour that accompanies Brady.
And don’t forget, Brady forced the issue when the quarterbacks were teammates at New England, forcing the trade that shipped Garoppolo to San Francisco.
Now wouldn’t that be something if Brady forced Jimmy G out of a job again? Don’t put it past him. He is, after all, the greatest of all time and he is coming back.