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Tom Brady Could’ve Retired Sooner — But He Had a Big Reason Not To

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Angelo Guinhawa | Last updated Sep 15, 2025 7:09 PM ET

Tom Brady played for 23 seasons in the NFL, winning seven Super Bowl titles, five Super Bowl MVPs and three regular season MVP awards. He spent the majority of his career — 20 seasons to be exact — with the New England Patriots before playing the last three with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The average playing career of an NFL player is 3.3 years, with QBs having a slightly longer average career length at 4.44 years, according to Statista. That being said, it wouldn't have been a surprise had Brady called it a career after a decade in the pros.

Besides, it's worth noting that Brady had already won three Super Bowl titles 10 years into his NFL career. So at that point, he had nothing left to prove and could have easily retired.

Brady, however, had an amazing reason for pushing to reach over two decades and beyond his 40s playing pro football — and it's not money or personal satisfaction.

"I spent some time with Jerry Rice recently ... We got to talking about our careers, as guys who played longer than anyone else at our respective positions, and Jerry said something that really resonated with me," Brady wrote in the latest drop of his "199" newsletter.

"The thing that kept him going all those years, at such a high level, was the desire to never let his teammates down. I felt the exact same way. It’s what motivated me for 23 seasons and what drove me to prep, practice, and play the way I did every day. More than money, more than accolades, more even than winning when I really step back to think about it."

Later in his newsletter, Brady further explained his stance, emphasizing that he also wanted "all the new guys coming in — the draft picks, the free agents — to experience the same joy and elation I’d experienced winning the ultimate prize as part of a team with a single mission and a we-first attitude."

"Being part of something bigger than myself and being accountable to my teammates didn’t just make me want to do the hard work, it made getting up for it easy," Brady added. "It made the work a pleasure, a daily source of joy and satisfaction for its own sake–which is the crux of where intrinsic motivation meets extrinsic motivation.

Sure enough, with everything he had done with the Patriots and Buccaneers, Tom Brady made a lot of his teammates happy and helped open many doors and create new opportunities for them.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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