Tom Brady explains how he knew it was time to retire

Fox Sports NFL color commentator Tom Brady appeared on Thursday’s edition of The Herd with Colin Cowherd on FS1 and offered his thoughts on the decision ahead for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. A lot of people in the NFL world, including ESPN’s Troy Aikman, think Rodgers will finally choose to retire this offseason.

Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, didn’t retire until after his age-45 season, the 23rd season of his illustrious career. He was still playing quarterback at a high level and had NFL-leading production the season prior. And he explained to Cowherd what made him realize it’s time to walk away from the game.

“I remember, and I think it’s hard, because you were so good to the very end,” Cowherd began on the subject. “Two years after you retired, you would have still been a top-six quarterback. Aaron, I thought had a really good year, all things considered. He lost DK Metcalf, the [offensive line] was a work in progress, not a consistent run game, more of a defensive culture. And I remember your retirement video, it was emotional, you were on the beach, you were sitting down by yourself. And so Aaron is in that space now. Did you have an epiphany? Was it a drive around the block? Did you wake up? Was it a dream? What got you to the… ‘I can still play. I can still win a lot of games. And I can still make the playoffs. I’m going to call it a career.’ Do you remember the moment? Because I think Aaron could have a moment like that in the next three weeks.”

“Yeah, my last season was tough,” Brady said. “I was going through, just a personal family issue, and it was a challenge. And it just took a lot out of me in terms of my ability to continue to play. I had 23 years of it, so I didn’t feel like I was missing anything retiring. I felt like, okay, this time, I always had a goal at 45 (years old), I wanted to spend time with my kids. I felt like, okay, now it’s time for me to be at all my kids’ games. They have been at enough of their dad’s games.”

“And Aaron’s got his own decisions he’s got to make,” Brady continued. “He doesn’t have kids. He’s trying to navigate what he wants to do post-career. It’s hard to give up football too. It’s something that we’re really good at. It’s something you love to do. You love being out there with your teammates.”

“I told a friend the other day, when I got older, I almost enjoyed practice more than playing,” Brady explained. “Because, playing, it was almost like it was a relief to win. I was like, what’s another win going to do for people? It’s never satisfying, even for me. Sometimes winning and not winning like you would expect. So, I understood at that point, probably in my last season, like, okay, this is going to be my last time. I tried to put as much as I could into it. I felt like I owed it to my teammates and coaches to give them everything I had. I wish it could have been a little bit better at the end, but it was just a unique situation and unique year for me.”

“And Aaron’s got that too,” Brady elaborated. “I mean, Aaron’s got his own ways that he deals with trying to find solutions, and I know he’s done some different things in the past; I’m sure he’s trying to figure out. Because football is like a marathon, the season. Everyone loves to run the first four miles of a marathon, and everyone loves to run the last two miles of a marathon. But it’s those middle 20 miles that are hard. Because, kind of the shine wears off after about a month, and now you’ve got to dig deep into your preparation, into your body work, your treatments. You’ve got to dig deep with your teammates. And because it’s such a long season, you need to work really hard over the course of the offseason to kind of callous your body for what it takes to be an NFL player.”

“So, to me, it’s, do you want to make the commitment year-round?” Brady asked. “Because if you don’t, well then it’s never going to turn out well when the season happens. In order to be a great NFL player, you’ve got to commit and be fully in. And that’s the only way your team is going to have a chance to win, especially when you’re the starting quarterback. And only Aaron can decide that for himself.”

Being able to get a $375 million contract over 10 years to call NFL games surely made it an easier decision for Brady to retire from playing football as well. And that necessary work ethic and competitive drive that Brady told Cowherd about playing quarterback has carried over to the booth, with Brady showing significant growth in year two as an announcer for Fox.