Is ticking for ageless Brady
Stadium, there is ‘‘zero’’ chance he will retire after this – his 19th – NFL season.
Realistically, Brady will be at ‘‘zero’’ until the morning he wakes and decides he doesn’t want to go to work again, a decision that could come at any time with his legacy as one of the greatest of all-time secure and financial resources beyond imagination.
He’s far too smart to set off a seismic chain of events by hinting retirement is even remotely possible as he and his team prepare for their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance and fourth in five years. So zero was the only answer a polished operator such as Brady would offer.
Spygate and Deflategate, scandals that shook the organisation in seasons past and fuelled and multiplied Patriots detractors, are no longer chasing them. However, Father Time is beginning to make his presence felt and ultimately will be the foe Brady can’t escape – even as he has done a masterful job maintaining youth at 41. He’s certainly getting help from teammates as the Rams must solve something the Chiefs and Chargers could not: Brady has yet to be hit by a defensive player this post-season.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he expects to give Brady, who is signed through 2019, a contract extension this offseason. ‘‘I would be quite surprised if he didn’t continue for quite a while as our quarterback,’’ Kraft said.
Former Patriots outside linebacker Rob Ninkovich retired two years ago after the comeback victory over the Falcons in Super Bowl LI. He marveled at how Brady prepared himself and sees no reason why the Patriots can’t keep this going into 2019, 2020 and ...
‘‘As long as they want,’’ Ninkovich said. ‘‘Now that they’ve been doing it for so long, they can do it until they don’t wanna go.’’
It all started 18 years ago with a victory over the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, the first of Brady’s five rings. Consider what the Rams have gone through since then – seven head coaches, 20 starting quarterbacks, a move from St Louis to Los Angeles and only four playoff appearances – and you gain a greater appreciation for what the Patriots have accomplished.
Talk of a Patriots dynasty centres on Brady and Belichick, who this week deflected any talk about his future.
‘‘As far as the future goes, the future for me is Sunday night against the Rams,’’ the coach said.
Plenty of folks wondered about the Patriots’ post-season viability this season. They were whipped in road losses to the Jaguars and Lions in Weeks 2 and 3, and both those teams finished in last place. They suffered a 24-point loss at Tennessee in midNovember and back-to-back losses at Miami and Pittsburgh in December. Brady-Belichick teams typically don’t
‘I would be quite surprised if he didn’t continue for quite a while as our quarterback.’’ Patriots owner Robert Kraft on star quarterback Tom Brady