Tom Brady confident he'll play at high level in NFL return but admits 'I know I don't have a lot left'

Brady initially announced his retirement on Feb. 1, but unretired in March

While we did get a brief glimpse into an NFL without Tom Brady, it was short-lived. To the chagrin of teams across the league, the seven-time Super Bowl champion decided to call off his retirement just over a month after his initial announcement that he was walking away from the game on Feb. 1. For anyone following Brady's brief retirement, the news wasn't that surprising as he hadn't shut the door about a possible comeback almost immediately after retiring. In a recent interview with ESPN, Brady noted that he still felt the pull to play and believed he could continue to do so at a high level. 

"I knew my body, physically, could still do what it could do and obviously I have a love for the game, I think I'll always have a love for the game," Brady told ESPN. "I do think physically I'll be able to do it. I just felt like there was still a place for me on the field."

To his credit, Brady's not wrong. He had just finished a 2021 season where he was runner-up in the MVP voting and led the NFL in passing yards (5,316) and touchdowns (43). The Buccaneers had also won the NFC South and reached the divisional round before falling to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. 

Brady will be 45 at the start of the 2022 season, an age that he has long pointed to as the mile-maker for where he'll evaluate his future in the NFL. While he told ESPN that he isn't sure how much longer he'll play, he acknowledges that he's certainly closer to the end than he is the beginning. 

"I know I don't have a lot left, I really do. I know I'm at the end of my career," Brady said. "I wish you could go forever, but it's just not and football comes at too high of a cost now. My kids are getting older and it's just getting harder and harder to miss these things. But, I wanted to give myself and my teammates and our organization another incredible opportunity to accomplish something that we'd all be very proud of."

While Brady will be back in the fold for Tampa Bay, he will be returning to a Buccaneers team that has a new head coach in Todd Bowles, who ascended to that position from defensive coordinator after former head coach Bruce Arians stepped down earlier this offseason.