After the Buccaneers signed Tom Brady to an extension through the 2022 season this year, General Manager Jason Licht said that he told Brady that he thinks the quarterback could play until he’s 50 as long as he still wants to play.
That would make Brady the oldest player to take the field in league history, which doesn’t seem so farfetched now that Brady is the oldest regular starting quarterback to ever play in the NFL and has shown little drop in the quality of his play. That doesn’t mean Brady is planning on playing football into his sixth decade on Earth.
“50? That’s a long time. Even for me, that’s a long time,” Brady said, via Jori Epstein of USA Today. “I’ve always said 45 was the age that I wanted to reach and that was my goal. This year I’ll be 44, so next year I’ll be 45. I got a two-year contract. I’m going to be able to obviously play this year and God forbid anything happens but play next year and then see what happens after that. If I still want to keep playing, I might be able to do that. And if that’s enough, then that would be enough.”
Brady has long talked about playing until he’s 45, but admitted to being a “little fearful” of life after football this offseason and continued success in 2021 will make it easier to see him pushing past that point. That’s still a long way from 50, but it’s been a long time since anyone got rich doubting Brady’s ability to get the job done.
