Not even Tom Brady was eternal in New England. Arguably, the greatest quarterback to ever play the game had a shelf life, and being observant and intuitive, Brady knew when it was time to go. It did not take Sherlock Holmes to deduce when the writing was on the wall. When he knew, Brady pulled up stakes and prepared to move.
When Did Tom Brady Know the End Was Near in New England?
Brady explained how the end played out with Cris Collinsworth on the latter’s Pro Football Focus podcast.
“I had a choice to be a free agent,” Brady said. “When I had that last season, I put my house for sale in September. I knew that was my last year.”
“Well, I knew that I wasn’t going to come back to the team at the end of that year (2019),” Brady added. “I literally put my house for sale. There were a lot of conversations that I had over the previous couple of years that I knew it was time for me to continue my football journey somewhere else.”
While Brady is obviously a Patriot for life, he admitted that many emotions were involved with the parting, likening it to a father-son relationship.
“And it was nobody to blame,” Brady explained. “There was no animosity. In fact, I was, it’s, it’s very emotional leaving because it’s kind of like telling, you know, your dad, I’m going away to college somewhere else. I’m leaving to go on a different journey. And it was just the right moment for me.”
Things turned out very well for Brady, but he did not end up in Tampa Bay by accident or on a whim. His next move was a calculated one. As he puts it, he picked an organization that he felt could really use him.
“I really evaluated the rosters. I evaluated the coaches,” Brady said. “I evaluated the weather conditions, the climate, the practice climate, and the facilities. I had a value associated with everything that I valued as a player at that time.”
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His evaluation paid off in spades. In his first year with the Buccaneers, Brady led them to an 11-5 record while throwing for 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns at the age of 43. He then faced off against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV, where the Bucs won 31-9, giving Brady his seventh championship ring.
Brady played two more seasons with Tampa, and while he did not win an eighth Super Bowl, he performed at an almost superhuman level at the game’s most crucial position. Over his age 44 and 45 seasons, he threw for 10,010 yards and 68 touchdowns.
Brady was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame at Gillette Stadium on June 12, 2024. The date was chosen to represent the six Super Bowls he won with the Patriots and his jersey number, 12.
