Peter Pan No More: Brady Says Goodbye

 It finally ended. A series of Instagram posts from Tom Brady made it official earlier this week. 

We’d had myriad media reports — starting a week before the official announcement from friend of the show Jason LaCanfora. He had a second report for CBS Sports on the Friday before the big flurry of activity on Saturday when ESPN and the Schefter/Darlington combination dived into the fray. 

We’d done the deep dives and reasoning and rationalizing about Brady and his future for a week. The secondary reports made me take pause. 

For a moment, even though I was punting and shagging soccer balls for my daughter in my ragged shorts and backwards ball cap, I thought, “Damn. Now I’m officially old.”

It’s not a new phenomenon, these fleeting thoughts. After all, Jason and I have discussed plenty of “JRs” making their way to collegiate and then professional sports. 

But this one hit different. Brady’s the player that sought to spit in the eye of Father Time. He set lofty goals of playing at 45, or — crazier - even 50 years old. 

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During the week, I’d argued about the high achievements of his 2021 season, the potential chaos of perhaps losing both coordinators, roster turnover and Brady having watched each of his contemporaries find their way to performance cliffs.  

So, the pile of reports came as no surprise and didn’t stop me too long. The next punt gave me a twinge in my hammy, but I’ve come to accept those as part of the process. I shanked it, and laughed like a lunatic as my daughter glared at me. 

By the time Brady actually confirmed the story, we didn’t spend much time discussing the actual retirement. Rather, we parsed words to determine potential snubs and the feelings of fan bases and organizations. 

We’re transitioning into a brave, new post-Brady world. He may have hung them up (maybe until late-July?), but we continue our pursuits to keep young and playing in our weekend warrior mode. Maybe I’ll even find some TB12 supplements and avocado ice cream. Hey, worked for Tom!

I gotta go stretch. “Ball up!”