Tom Brady isn't old for a regular person, but he's certainly old for a football player. Brady played last season at 40 years old, making him the oldest offensive player in football by about a year and a half. He'll be 41 for the entirety of next season, and of course, will again be the league's oldest offensive player. But he also says that he's not nearly done playing. Brady has mused before that he wants to play until he's 45, which would give him five more seasons.
As of this point, he's allowed to play at least two. Allowed by whom? His wife, Gisele Bundchen. "I've talked two years with my wife," Brady said during an interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Santa Monica, California, per the Boston Globe. "I've negotiated that thus far. I've still got a little further to go."
Brady noted that playing for as long as he has, has meant that his wife and three children have gotten a shorter shrift than he did from his own father. "The model I had as a father was he was there for all the things, and I'm not there for all the things," Brady said. "Every Sunday for the last 25 years, I've been playing in the fall and winter. My kids are 10, 8 and 5. They're not getting younger, so I need to take time so I can be available to them, too."
Because of that, he wants to make sure that he spends more time with them during the offseason. This year, that includes skipping Patriots OTAs in order to go on a trip with the family. Instead of working out at OTAs, he'll just work out wherever he happens to be. (And apparently, in whatever shorts happen to be lying around.)
Aware that his absence from offseason activities could be taken as a sign of a deteriorating relationship with Pats coach Bill Belichick, Brady addressed that concern as well.
"We've had a great relationship, a very respectful relationship for a long time," he said. "He has a management style [with] players, and he would say, 'Look, I'm not the easiest coach to play for.' I agree. He's not the easiest coach to play for. But he's the best for me. He's been an incredible coach, he's been an incredible mentor to me."
