Brady says he’s not thinking about retiring

New Englanders may find it hard to forget that we’re coming up on the anniversary of when former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady retired and then, very quickly, un-retired from football.

But it doesn’t sound as if fans of TB12 will suffer through that whiplash again anytime soon.

On a recent episode of his “Let’s Go” podcast, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer gave listeners an update on his thoughts on retirement.

“Do you contemplate that at this point?” podcast cohost Jim Gray asked the GOAT of retirement.

“I really don’t,” the 45-year-old quarterback said. “What I realized last year is you gotta be really sure to do that, and for me, you know, a lot of people have gone through this situation . . . . I’m gonna take my time, whenever that time does come. In the meantime I have a hugely important job the team’s asking me to do, and I want to go out there and I want to play my best these last two weeks of the regular season.” Brady’s comments come on the heels of his team’s 19-16 overtime win against the Arizona Cardinals on Christmas night.

Gray had asked Brady, jokingly, if he would retire and then un-retire if tight end Rob Gronkowski un-retires again. (Gronk first retired in 2019, then returned to the NFL in 2020 to play for the Bucs before retiring a second time in June.)

“Look, nobody loves Gronk more than me . . . he’s kinda like one of my kids, actually,” Brady joked. “Every now and then I gotta put him in timeout for misbehaving, for eating paste and stuff like that . . . . So whatever he decides in the future, I’ll be fully supportive.”