Tom Brady, Steve Young address Aaron Rodgers' potential retirement after Packers QB's comments following loss

Brady pointed to his own retirement decisions as he and Young broke down Rodgers' choice

Not many people have as much insight on being an all-time great NFL quarterback and the trouble with deciding when to retire as Tom Brady. With four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers' season ending in crushing fashion with a 20-16 defeat on "Sunday Night Football," the 39-year-old Green Bay Packers passer openly talked about his football future and taking some time to weigh his options prior to free agency in March. 

Brady and his latest guest on his SirusXM radio show/podcast "Let's Go!" -- Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young -- provided insight on what it's like to contemplate moving on from football and the best time to think through such a decision, given Rodgers comments.

"What he's [Rodgers] contemplating is, in my mind, a death. And who chooses death?" Steve Young said Tuesday, alluding to retiring from professional football. 

"Because when you're the best at something in the world and then you leave the game and the next day you're not that anymore and you find out, you know what, I'm not actually even good at anything else."

"So you end up wanting so much to go back to the thing I was great at. Not because you want the adulation and people to tell you that you're great, like there's something that you're great at. And as a human being you don't want to [Brady said "suck"], that's my highest and best use.

"What [Rodgers] is contemplating is a really difficult thing, and people have no idea — having been there and felt that and have to deal with it. I always tell people, 'The next day you're at the bottom of a cliff in a broken sack of bones. And then you gotta stand up and start doing something different. But it's never going to be the same. It'll never be as all-encompassing, every bit of yourself poured out every week. There's nothing like it. And that's why Aaron is sitting in that spot, looking over the cliff going, 'I don't want to fall down there. I don't want to go there. I don't." And that's really [how I] viscerally feel him today."

Brady, whose initial retirement lasted 40 days after becoming public on February 1, 2021, and ending on March 13, 2021, validated Young's sentiments and emphasized the importance of taking the proper amount of time to think through a potential career-ending decision.  

"Steve brings out the perfect point," the Buccaneers quarterback said. "Those are absolutely legitimate feelings and emotions. And I think the most important thing is the day after the season, and I made this mistake, is not to decide the future."  

Last offseason, Rodgers made the decision to re-sign with the Packers on a three-year, $150 million contract extension prior to the franchise tag deadline, and since he said he "won't hold 'em [the Packers] hostage," it's safe to say he'll figure out his future in time to inform Green Bay's offseason roster building.