Two years after his second retirement, Tom Brady on Tuesday confirmed that he is “unretiring” to play in a flag football tournament in Saudi Arabia next year. The event, named The Fanatics Flag Football Classic, will see TB12 reunite with Rob Gronkowski on the football field.
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Interestingly, many active stars, including Saquon Barkley, CeeDee Lamb, Christian McCaffrey, Sauce Gardner, Myles Garrett, Brock Bowers, Maxx Crosby, Tyreek Hill, and Odell Beckham Jr., are taking part in the tournament.
But can we expect the GOAT to return to the NFL this season? In the past, legends like Michael Jordan unretired two times after his three official retirements in the NBA. However, at 48, age is not on Brady’s side.
While appearing on the Kay Adams Podcast, Gronk was asked where he would rank Brady if he were playing in the NFL right now. Before answering Kay Adams, the former Patriots TE explained why Brady is no longer playing in the league. The reason was that Brady doesn’t want to get hit anymore at this age.
“I would just say if Tom could not be hit at all, that’s probably why he is not playing anymore. Because you know, 48 years old, you get hit by a D-lineman that’s 23 years old,” Gronk observed.
Notably, the seven-time Super Bowl champion was sacked 565 times in 335 games as a quarterback, which accounts for a 4.48% sack rate. He once revealed on the IMPAULSIVE podcast the players he was “afraid” to get hit by – Ray Lewis and Ndamukong Suh.
Based on Brady’s aversion to getting hit, Gronk spoke at length about where the 48-year-old QB would rank in today’s NFL amid the rising competition.
“If he could not be hit at all, say he knew he was going to have a clean pocket every single time he stepped up, and he was playing in the NFL, I would say he’d be better than probably 20 of the starting quarterbacks right now, easily. He would be top 12. He would be top 12 right now,” Gronk added.
At present, 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers is the oldest QB in the NFL. Brady, who won a Super Bowl in his 40s, retired in 2023 at 45. With injuries to several starting QBs like Joe Burrow and Brock Purdy, fans are still talking about Brady possibly unretiring for the NFL.
However, it remains unlikely, as he has already “moved on” and has multiple roles as the Fox lead analyst and Raiders minority owner. But one thing is quite clear: Brady’s name will still reverberate on the field, even in retirement.
