NFL
"Tom Brady returning to NFL would shock me" - Bruce Arians
Tom Brady has not ruled out a return to the NFL but Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians would be surprised if he came out of retirement.
Bruce Arians is not expecting Tom Brady to reverse his decision on retiring from the NFL. Brady called time on a stunning 22-season career in the league last month following the end of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' title defence.
The only player to win seven Super Bowl titles, Brady has nothing left to prove, but has not ruled out a return to the sport he has dominated. "I'm just going to take things as they come," Brady recently told Jim Gray on the Let's Go! podcast. "I think that's the best way to put it, and you never say never. At the same time, I feel very good about my decision. I don't know how I'll feel six months from now."
The Buccaneers still own Brady's rights, so a decision to come out of retirement would mean they would need to trade or release him if he did not wish to play for the team he joined after 20 seasons with the New England Patriots.
Head coach Arians, though, is not anticipating such a scenario, telling the Tampa Bay Times: "That would shock me [Brady playing in 2022]. And he let us know in time to do the free agency like we've done in the past, that's why I don't see it happening."
Arians also rejected claims from former NFL player Rich Ohrnberger that his relationship with Brady deteriorated last year, taking particular issue with the detail that Arians would remove things from a gameplan put together by Brady and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich while the head coach rehabbed his Achilles in the morning.
"It seems like there's one [story] every day now,’" Arians explained. "Everybody is speculating he's going somewhere else. That don't bother me. This other b*******, the relationship thing, that's so far-fetched. I mean, that's such b*******. That's what pisses me off. I guess probably Byron could corroborate this, too. First of all, I don't rehab my Achilles in the morning. I will go over the gameplans and add things, but I don't delete anything. I don't have to because they do such a good job. I'll see some things. Add some things. It's an awesome collaboration, one of the best I've ever been around."