In a Monday piece for The Players’ Tribune , legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady outlined his decision to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after leaving the New England Patriots . According to Brady, one thing that drove his decision was a desire to take what he learned from the Patriots and “help younger players evolve” both on and off the field on a new team. But first, Brady said, he needs to turn inward.
“Right now, though, I have things to prove to myself,” he wrote.
“The only way is through. If I don’t go for it, I’ll never know what I could have accomplished. Wanting to do something is different from actually doing it. If I stood at the bottom of a mountain, and told myself I could scale the highest peak, but then didn’t do anything about it, what’s the point of that?”
Brady expressed a desire to do the unprecedented in football — a process he said is “fun” for him as well as the teams he plays with.
“At some point, you have to throw your whole body into what you’re doing,” Brady wrote at the end of his piece. “You have to say, Let’s ride. Let’s see what we got.”
“I want to show everybody what I got,” he concluded.
Welcome to Tampa Bay, @TomBrady . ? pic.twitter.com/VJooGYwwiA
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) March 20, 2020
Earlier in the piece, Brady said he faced a unique set of challenges while playing for the same team for 20 years. Although he noted the comfort of familiarity, he also pointed to a significant downside of this rhythm — losing sight of new challenges. Brady’s comments echo his father, Tom Brady Sr. , who recently appeared on the Boston sports radio station WEEI and said his son had grown bored with the Patriots. Nevertheless, Brady’s split with Patriots Coach Bill Belichick was referred to by Brady Sr. as more akin to a separation — two people taking different paths — than a divorce.
In his piece, Brady wrote of the different things he is facing — be it coaches, players, or programs — as well as his excitement for tackling new challenges that will put him in front of a new learning curve. The 42-year-old also expressed understanding that his career, which has so far spanned 20 seasons and six Super Bowl wins, is coming to an end.
As reported by USA Today , NFL Network puts Brady’s deal with the Buccaneers at approximately $30 million per year. The team has not made the postseason since 2007 and has a track record that includes a string of poor early performances in its early years.