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In the last off-season, Tom Brady retired for a little over a month before returning to the NFL. His retirement announcement was a bit rushed, though. On February 1, 2022, Adam Schefter broke some of the biggest news in recent NFL history- that the legendary quarterback and future first-ballot Hall of Famer was calling it a career.
Schefter, who has been known to rush things to be the first to get the scoop, posted a tweet announcing the retirement at 9:36 PM EST.
He simply tweeted:
"Tom Brady officially announced his retirement."
Unfortunately, that ruined Brady's plans. Brady himself posted a lengthy retirement announcement just three minutes later at 9:39 PM EST.
What Brady wrote was much lengthier and more personal than the bland retirement announcement Schefter tweeted out. He wrote eight screenshots worth of tweets to his fans, the game of football and everyone else.
The only problem is that Schefter had already beat him to it. Schefter, in a frenzy to be first, ruined Brady's announcement.
After so many years in the league and so much success, Brady earned the right to go out on his own terms. He also earned the right to announce it himself. Schefter robbed him of that in another misguided attempt to be the first to break the news.
There is a lot of speculation as to why Brady's retirement didn't stick, but one popular theory is that it was because of Schefter.
Brady may have wanted to go out on his own terms and announce it himself. When Schefter beat him to it, he could have decided to play another season or two just so he could actually announce it later. That is simply a theory, though.
Is Tom Brady retiring this off-season?
One year after his initial retirement announcement, it's fair to wonder if Tom Brady has retirement on his mind once again.
When he last announced it, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had won 12 games and a playoff game and Brady was an MVP candidate.
Now, the Buccaneers are in shambles after finishing under .500 and Brady looked like a shell of himself. Nevertheless, retirement doesn't seem to be on Brady's mind right now.
