Tom Brady reveals how he broke news of his comeback to his family

When Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady revealed to his family his intentions to revoke his retirement from football, the NFL was about to transition into its first stage of free agency. Brady felt as if he was missing out — like his story wasn’t done being written, and returned to Tampa with the complete support of his family behind him.

“I decided to talk with my family and I said, ‘I think I wanna do this one more time if you guys will support that.’ And my wife was so supportive of it and she said, ‘Look, I want you to be happy. I want you to enjoy it and go out there and win.’ Ultimately, that’s why I came back, to win,” Brady said. “There’s only one reason to play for me at this point in my career. And that’s to win.”

Brady seemed to rush his initial retirement, and not even two months later the seven-time Super Bowl champion would explode social media when his comeback was announced just hours before free agency throughout the NFL, putting the major signings of the day on the back burner.

“Eventually, I had to make a decision just because they were getting into free agency. Would I have preferred to wait in the end to make sure I was really, really sure? Yeah. But that wasn’t the way the NFL calendar works,” Brady said.

His retirement first arose as a possibility prior to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ final NFL Playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams, a game in which the Buccaneers nearly staged a historic comeback. The Buccaneers trailed by as much as 27-3 in the second half of the NFC divisional playoff game, but they managed to tie it up at 27 with 42 seconds left on the clock. However, Matthew Stafford connected with Cooper Kupp for a 20-yard reception, then a 44-yard reception, putting the Rams in field-goal range and setting up Matt Gay for the game-winner. He retired shortly after that game, but in a surprise social media post, he announced his return several weeks after.

Over the course of his first 22-seasons, threw for 84,520 passing yards, the most in NFL history, and 624 passing touchdowns, also the most in NFL history. Moreover, he seems to get better with age: Brady threw for 147 touchdowns in his 20’s, compared to 168 passing touchdowns in his 40’s.