Are People Actually Serious With This Talk About Tom Brady Retiring After the Playoffs?

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Some time around the end of the Bronze Age, Tom Brady was asked about how long he thinks he can play football and he answered simply, "When I suck, then I'll retire." 

That has been one of his most often cited quotes. In fact, it's right up there with "My favorite receiver is whoever is open," "My favorite ring is the next one," and "Let's fucking go" as the public's favorites. And since, objectively speaking, he is the thesaurus antonym of "suck" right now:

… it would follow logically that the idea of him retiring is the furthest thing from his mind, or anyone else's. 

So why are so many people talking about it? 

Source - “It wouldn’t surprise me if Tom Brady decided to walk away (this offseason) and do whatever he wants to do,” [Rob] Ninkovich said Wednesday on ESPN’s “Get Up!” “Right now, Tom is in bonus time. How many 44-year-old quarterbacks have we seen throw for the amount of yards and touchdowns (he has)? He’ll be 45 in August. So, at this point right now, what else does he have to prove to anybody? What else does he have to check off the list?”

And another of his ex-teammates said likewise on his WEEI show:

 Christian Fauria, who played with Brady in the early 2000s, said something similar.

“It would not surprise me if, April, there was like a statement released from Brady expressing his gratitude, love and appreciation for both teams that he played with, all the coaches that mentored him, and the owners of the teams that he played for, his family, his parents, his kids, his baby mama, everybody," Fauria said.

Which is very similar to what Seth Wickersham - who has carved out a nice career niche writing things that seem to come straight from either the Brady camp or someone close to them - wrote on an ESPN list of bold playoff predictions:

This is just a hunch, but I'm predicting that this will be the last playoff run for three future Hall of Fame quarterbacks with their current teams. We know that the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger will retire. But I think Tom Brady will, too. And finally, Aaron Rodgers will leave Green Bay after another season without reaching the Super Bowl.

And now it's becoming a debate topic on cable panel shows:

Including ones with two Do Your Pod guests. With Phil Perry saying there's nothing to this and Tom E. Curran saying he thinks both Brady and Belichick retire after 2022:

Seriously, where is this coming from? Even if it is just speculation and talk show time filler and a sportswriter's "hunch," that's a lot of smoke for something that is not a fire to produce. An awful lot. 

Part of it might be fueled by the fact his series "Man in the Arena," which came out every Tuesday for the first nine episodes, chronicling his nine trips to the Super Bowl, were released nine Tuesdays in a row. The fact the 10th and final episode has been delayed with no explanation, might not mean everything, but it doesn't mean nothing, either. And when you get an information void like that, people fill it with their own nutty theories. Nature abhors a vacuum, but it loves insane ideas. And the thought that the best player is going to call it quits when he is at the absolute height of his powers, has total control over the offense he runs, and even, it seems, has complete authority to make whatever personnel decision pleases him, it's about as wacky as they come. 

It's hard to come up with an apt comparison to any athlete every calling it quits under circumstances like this. Being as good and as successful as Brady is right now and choosing to walk into the cornfield. 

Jim Brown, maybe. He led the league in every rushing category, won his third MVP, and led the Browns to the playoffs when he quit in 1965. But that was a different world and he was getting the chance to star in movies like "The Dirty Dozen." 

Barry Sanders was the best back in football still when he retired. And was close to the rushing record. But the utter, hopeless futility of being a Detroit Lion is what made him lose interest, as it did to Calvin Johnson a few years later. 

Sandy Koufax was just 30, led the National League in wins, ERA, strikeouts and innings, won the Cy Young and was second in the MVP race in his last season. But he got arthritis. 

Just about every other great athlete you can think of retired because they got too old, too ineffective, or too injured to keep going. Even guys who went out with championships like John Elway or Peyton Manning, were shadows of themselves. Brady is a perfectly preserved specimen of what he was in his peak. In fact, he's on the same peak he's been on since about 2007. And if this really is the end of the road for him, I'll be absolutely shocked beyond belief. No matter how many times he said in the past his goal was to play until he's 45. I still go by "When I suck, I'll retire." And that day isn't going to be here for a long time. If ever.