Thursday, February 2, 2023

Should Tom Brady have (stayed) retired?

Tom Brady is the greatest football player in history, but did this last disastrous season hurt his reputation?  Or is his career so impressive that it really didn't hurt him?

He originally retired a year ago, and then came back for one more season.  If he had stayed retired then everyone would have thought "Of course he could have played longer; he went out at the top."  Now it's pretty clear that while he is still a great quarterback, he's not what he was a couple years ago.

Thoughts?

17 comments:

riverrider said...

stayed retired. lost his wife over a game. hope he can repair his relationship w/ his kids now.

GuardDuck said...

Should have stayed. He left New England and won while NE lost - proving it was him and not Belichick. That's a heck of a finish. Instead he suffers this bad let down. Still the GOAT - but leaving on a higher note would have been better.

MrGarabaldi said...

hey Borepatch;

GuardDuck pretty much said it, Sure it would have been good if he did one more killer post season, but he was basically starting to slide downward, so it was time. It will be years for anybody will equal or pass his record.

danielbarger said...

Whyngoukd anyone care.... he's a sportsball player. An overpaid sportsball player. Nothing more. What does or does not do is irrelevant to 99.9999% of America. We need to stop paying attention to the useless lives of sportsball players and Hollywood parasites who get rich playing make believe. We have a LOT more important things we would be concerned with....like that massive crime cabal controlling our government.

matism said...

I would merely note that during this last year, he STILL set some new records. And the play by his teammates was not as good as might have been desired.
And yet they still made the playoffs!

Paul, Dammit! said...

He sure was good at playing a children's game.
He chose one more year of playing a children's game over his own children's well-being. Again. So that brings the total of children who come second to playing a children's game up to three for him.
Eff that guy. With a truck bumper. At highway speed.

Goober said...

I think that only he can decide that. Could he have lived with himself, leaving on top like that? Never knowing?

Now he knows.

I only hope that it was worth it, because he lost his family over it all.

Roy said...

I do not begrudge anyone their own preferences in entertainment. Sportsball - in any form - has never been my thing. However, I do think too many people take it way too serious. (I get it for the few people that make millions off of the franchise, but for the vast population "other" they have no stake in it except as ticket buyers to an entertainment venue.)

So my answer is basically: "Tom Brady who??"

Jonathan H said...

I'm with you there; we give these guys way more attention than they deserve!

BobF said...

What Roy said...

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Mario V Albano said...

Unretired, he did for the simple reason any man will not walk away from the table with a guaranteed income of @25M, Giselle Bunchen aside.

JKS said...

I'd like to register a mild complaint against the sneering term "sportsball." (And what do you call hockey -- sportspuck?) I understand that all the major sports leagues have issues, like pandering to woke SJWs, that are annoying as hell. But there are nevertheless a lot of us mouth-breathing nitwits who actually enjoy watching -- or even *gasp* playing -- sports. At least 330 or so, according to danielbarger above (330 million x .0001 percent). Odd that the TV networks, advertisers, leagues, etc. spend so much money on so few people.

Roy said...

I understand, JKS. Like I said, I don't begrudge anyone their own form of entertainment. The term "sportsball" is meant as an all-inclusive for sports in general. So, if you enjoy playing sports, or watching the million dollar babies on TV, you'll get no problems from me.

However, I also have a more-then-mild complaint about the entire collegiate and professional "sportsball" industry in that I don't want a single red cent of *MY* money going to it unless I choose to pay for a ticket. Unfortunately, that isn't how it works. The sportsball industry picks my pocket on a regular basis with their public funding of stadiums and other venues. And just for reference, look up the highest paid state employee of the 50 states. It's not the governor. Nope, in all but a few, it's... You guessed it... A damned sportsball coach.

With all the public money spent, as far as I'm concerned the stupid tickets should be free. (...I still wouldn't go because I find most of it to be mind-numbingly boring.)

Aesop said...

The only question that matters is was he one of the top 32 quarterbacks in the NFL.

If he was 33rd, playing was a mistake.
But if he was better than #33, (and he probably was), then if he wanted to play, of course he should have.

Anyone can have a bad season. Look at all the years Michael Jordan was the best player in the NBA for one of the worst teams in the NBA. You don't judge Jordan's talent by crappy seasons the Bulls had, and time won't judge Brady by his last season either.

And he didn't "lose his wife" over a game. Or a season.
That's recockulously oversimplistic.
He lost her because she decided the better payoff was making herself a liar over her vows, and taking the alimony payout. Unless she can credibly allege abuse, abandonment, or affairs (which is a whole different set of circumstances), or she qwalks out with the kids and the clothes on her back, and refuses any further settlement, she's just a gold-digging douche. No extra points are awarded for picking the opportune moment. The correct term is "wifestitute".

There's a lot of that going on these days. It's one of the curses of western civ, and one of the foremost reasons for the ongoing civilizational rot.

bj32097 said...

This was his second retirement announcement.

There will be a third. I'll take bets on it... and you'll lose.

IF Robert Kraft gives the go-ahead, Brady will be signed onto the Patriots again. It could be a 1 day contract. But it'll be enough for him to retire again, but this time as a Patriot.

Three retirements. I win.

snuffy said...

I'm just spitballing here, but is it possible he saw the writing on the wall regarding his marriage, and decided to use the "one more season" to get out? I mean, she had to give him the "either or" ultimatum. She has a higher net worth than he does, so it's not money.