Tom Brady is 38 and still one of the very best quarterbacks in the NFL. Thirty-eight is supposed to be a twilight age in any sport; the list of 40-year-olds who stuck around and still played at a high level is very short (in related news, Bartolo Colon is going to the World Series with the Mets!). And yet, Brady is still out there lighting it up and looking a lot more like a viable NFL QB than Peyton Manning, who’s only one year his senior. It’s fair for us to wonder, though: How long can he keep it up?
Well, Brady thinks he can keep it up for quite a while, telling reporters, “I want to play for a long time, maybe 10 more years. I think that’s probably what my goal is,” in a conference call on Wednesday.
That means Brady plans to stick around until 2025, which is still one of those years that sounds like a flying car type of future. Brady would be 48 that year, the same age George Blanda was when he played his record-setting 26th season. It’s nice to have goals and all, but could he actually do it?
“Well, it’s not always up to me,” Brady said. “That’s what my goals are, so that’s just what I’m hoping. And it will take a lot to achieve that. Obviously a team has to want you, but I think that’s — you know, I love playing this sport. I love making a commitment to my teammates and my coaches, and hopefully I can do it for a long time.”
Brady is famously durable (aside from one Bernard Pollard play), but the older he gets, the quicker fans will call for the hook if he starts slowly like he did last season. Bill Belichick isn’t getting any younger either, and it’s hard to imagine one without the other, but if Brady stops being effective, it’s equally hard to imagine Belichick favoring loyalty over winning games. Still, it would be harder to root against Brady if he’s an improbably effective 45-year-old, out here slinging passes and making jokes about the younglings coming into the league.
(Via CBS Sports)
