Tom Brady's broadcasting gig with FOX gives a clearer picture of QB's plans for retirement

Tom Brady never fails to put himself in the spotlight. That remained true on Tuesday morning when news dropped that he has a job lined up at FOX upon his retirement. Brady will be replacing Troy Aikman as the network's lead color commentator now that the latter is at ESPN with Joe Buck.

News later broke that the deal between Brady and FOX is for 10 years and amounts to $375 million. That money is just sitting out there waiting for him as soon as he decides his NFL career is over. Talk about a great pension plan.

Fans will recall that Brady initially retired earlier this offseason. However, he was back 40 days later, and the initial retirement felt rushed anyway. Now, he has a proper plan in place for life after football. So when will his new job begin?

Tom Brady may be indicating his career is nearly over

$375 million is a mind-blowing amount of money. Brady will make more annually announcing games than he ever did on the playing field. Those paychecks also come without absorbing any hits or spending much time at the practice facility.

Fans can speculate about why the quarterback retired, only to go back on his decision about a month later. One popular theory is that his family pushed him to quit, only to realize he wasn't ready.

But the reasons don't matter anymore because it's not like he will spend his falls sitting around doing nothing. However, this new job will still allow for more family time. So if that is a factor, he can point to this new job and say for sure what his schedule will be in the future. There is less uncertainty about how much he will be around or where he will be every week.

That Brady even signed this deal should indicate his career has one or two years remaining. FOX is without a star lead commentator to go alongside Kevin Burkhardt. No matter who gets the role now, it will only be on interim status.

It seems hard to believe that the network would hand out this deal without knowing how long it would take. Would they commit all this money, only to let Brady take five more years?

That is entirely possible because Brady holds all the power in the situation. Yet a likely scenario is him ending his contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022 and heading to the booth. The transition should be more comfortable than the last, as he will stay around the game of football instead of sitting at home.

If it does take longer, well, that is just the price of doing business with arguably the most driven athlete in NFL history.