TOM’S TIME IS NOT UP
Brady re-asserts he wants to play ’til 45
The final installment of “Tom vs. Time” — “The Next Game” — opens with a carefree glimpse into Tom Brady’s breezy and activityfilled family life. It’s a 1950s Norman Rockwell painting come to life, as we get a glimpse of such wholesome adventures as snorkeling plunges and action-paced boat rides during the big summer vacation in Qatar.
We first see funny, sarcastic Tom, as when he is touring the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar, and asks some American military personnel about an Ohio State logo he’s noticed on a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft. Told that the aircraft is from a guard unit and that they go with “whatever state where they’re from,” Brady, the proud Michigan alum, says with a harrumph, “Those are uggg-lee. There’s nothing I like about Ohio State.”
Take that, Mike Vrabel.
And then, as a transition technique, we get a wide shot of Brady’s magnificent Brookline home, which looks a lot like stately Wayne Manor from the Batman movies.
Fun stuff.
But if you were looking for some answers, some clues, perhaps, as to Brady’s state of mind and how long he intends to remain quarterback of your New England Patriots, that’s where the last installment of “Tom vs. Time” comes with a special bonus feature: A popsicle headache.
Remember all the other stuff? The hints and clues and bread crumbs dropped that suggested Brady was rounding third and heading for home?
Forget all that. Brady is back on the bandwagon to 45. He as much said so. But he saved all that for the end.
First, though, there was . . .
“The last couple of years, a lot of parts about football weren’t enjoyable, when they should’ve been,” he says, seated on a plush sofa at stately Brady Manor. “Some of it was my approach. I think any time you’re together with people for a long period of time, relationships ebb and flow. And I think people are just looking for something to write and talk about.”
Here, we get some audio of various talk-radio hosts stirrin’ the pot, and a comment about the quarterback’s personal trainer/ buddy/business partner Alex Guerrero.
“They want to talk about a lot of drama,” Brady says. “I’m sure a lot of teams have things like that, but ours is just to the 10th degree. I’m learning to deal with it better. I don’t still give a (expletive) that much anymore, about anything.
“To worry about a lot of (expletive) that people may say or think or feel, I really don’t care anymore.”
Says the guy who over the past three weeks has (1) walked out of a media scrum and (2) hung up on his weekly ’EEI hit when the questions veered toward Guerrero.
That Brady would say he’s “learning to deal with it better” is as humorous as the Ohio State crack. And as harmless. But it’s when Brady touches on the very title of this series — his battle with time — that your popsicle headache will hit you like a knock on the door from J.J. Watt.
“I would love to play five more years,” he says, and then uses the fingers on his right hand to count off the birthdays: “That would be 41, 42, 43, 44, 45. It would be a challenge for me. I don’t think it’s gonna be easy. It’ll be hard to do. It’s going to be very hard to do.” Note the uses of tenses. He’s not saying it “would” be very hard to do, but it’s “going” to be very hard to do.
“But,” he says, pausing a moment before delivering the news all Pats fans want to hear: “I think I can do it. Once you stop, you’re done. And I think I’m not ready to say that I’m done, because I don’t think that I am. I still feel like there are things I’d like to accomplish. I feel like I’m getting close to the top of the mountain.
“You work really hard to get to this point,” he says. “Why not finish it off? Look at my career from, I don’t know, 30, 32, 33 on. Lot of players retire at 33. You look at football, a 10-year career, that’s an amazing career. I think the last eight years of my career have been better than the first 10. I should just prolong it. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
This is why Jimmy Garoppolo was sent packing. It’s why Josh McDaniels was asked to unpack.
Tom Brady ain’t going anywhere.