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A San Francisco 49ers player rejects the notion that quarterback Tom Brady will return for a 23rd NFL season. Safety Jimmie Ward shared his thoughts during an Instagram Live session with fans. During the Instagram Live, Ward expressed his doubts, stating that the quarterback would back off his decision to step away from the game:
“I think some of the media is just using that for a story. I don’t think Tom Brady is coming out of retirement.”
It’s not just the 44-year-old quarterback coming out of retirement that a number of fans are theorizing about. Media outlets like Pro Football Talk have proposed that the quarterback will return and navigate his way to play for one team: the 49ers.
If that happens, he and Ward will be teammates. Not that Ward is absolutely certain that it’s happening. He compared the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback coming out of retirement to that of the late Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant:
“I’m saying, it doesn’t sound crazy, Tom Brady coming out of retirement to play one more year, but I don’t know,” Ward said. “Didn’t he come out with his speech, his retirement speech already? So, I don’t know, man. I don’t know, bro.
He went on to say the following:
“Tom Brady, I’m not saying he can’t do it. I feel like he can. He’s proven it, that he can go to another franchise, and win a Super Bowl that year. … But since he retired, I feel like that’s sort of the same situation with Kobe Bryant. When he retired from the Lakers, all the media kept saying, ‘Oh, yeah, Kobe said he’s not done. He’s going to come back and play with LeBron [James].’ But he never came back. He was retired. RIP.”
Tom Brady's NFL Career
He played the first 20 seasons of his career with the New England Patriots, winning six Lombardi Trophies and playing in nine Super Bowls. The sixth-round round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft also won all three of his NFL MVPs with New England, making the Pro Bowl 14 times and being a three-time All-Pro.
The 2009 AP Comeback Player of the Year left the Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2020 NFL season. He won his seventh Super Bowl that season in Super Bowl 55 over the Kansas City Chiefs.
He made it to his 15th and final Pro Bowl after leading the league in passing yards (5,316) and passing touchdowns (43) in the 2021 season.
He retired after 22 seasons, and the question is, will the quarterback stay retired, come back with Tampa Bay, or possibly make a move to the 49ers? We shall see as the offseason unfolds.
