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Tom Brady made waves this offseason when he announced, in the span of a few weeks, that he'd be retiring, then unretiring, from the NFL ahead of his 23rd season. While the news of Brady's initial retirement was made public by NFL insider Adam Schefter, the update of his unretirement could have been communicated by the quarterback's long-time friend, Harry Kane.
The 28-year-old Kane, whose youth soccer career began in 1999, a year before Brady entered the NFL, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday and revealed that the Tampa Bay signal-caller told him that he'd be ending his retirement to rejoin the Buccaneers franchise in 2022.
Kane said:
"...I wasn't 100 percent sure he actually come to regain one of our games in the UK about two months ago. It was actually the day before he announced he was coming back to play. And I asked him, 'How are you getting on? How's retirement treating you?' And his face just was like, 'No, I'm not sure if I'm ready yet.' So I mean, he didn't say what."
Kane has spoken at length about how Brady inspired him after the Tottenham Hotspur forward watched a documentary called The Brady 6, which features the signal-caller's journey to becoming a seven-time Super Bowl Champion, five-time Super Bowl MVP, and three-time NFL regular season MVP.
Kane said:
"I came across this documentary on YouTube called 'The Brady 6'. It was about how he got picked in the sixth round and then became who he became, one of the greatest sportsmen ever. It just gave me a real belief that it was possible for me to go on and have that career, and thankfully, I was able to do that."
Tom Brady was never planning on retiring
While the spectacle of Tom Brady's retirement was a major headline in February, it was mostly just for show anyway. As it turns out, the 44-year-old never had any intentions of retiring, to begin with. He was reportedly using his retirement as leverage to leave Tampa Bay and find a new home in Miami with his good friend, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.
Of course, as we know, Brian Flores' class-action lawsuit against the NFL for racist practices by Ross and other NFL owners shut that idea down, making a potential Dolphins union that much less likely in the future for Brady.
Now, the Buccaneers and Tom Brady must reconcile and look to overcome the awkwardness of the quarterback no longer wanting to be there.
