Tom Brady’s retirement situation was awkward for a few days.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington reported on a Saturday afternoon that the 44-year-old was planning to retire after 22 years in the league. The NFL world quickly responded with their congratulations and appreciation for Brady.
But, reports quickly surfaced saying that Brady hasn’t made a decision yet. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport was told by sources that the pushback was more focused on the timing of the news, not his decision. Brady’s agent, Don Yee, reached out to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer with a text on this situation.
“I understand the speculation about Tom’s future,” Yee said. “Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what’s being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy.”
A lot was happening, but Brady eventually announced his retirement three days later. Schefter joined “Pardon My Take” this week and discussed his conversation with Yee following the announcement.
“The first contact I had with Don Yee was afterwards,” Schefter said. “When he called, he said – and my wife was in the office – and I haven’t talked about this before, but I’m in my office, it’s a Saturday afternoon, there was a snowstorm in New York, wife is sitting there, Don Yee calls and said “why would you not call me in advance?’ I said, ‘I did call you, multiple times, left messages, never heard back from you.’ He said, ‘I have a statement I want to read to you.’ Now, when he said that, I will say I thought OK, what have we got here? What’s this statement going to be?”
The aforementioned statement was set to give Brady time to make the announcement on his own. At the end of the day, Schefter’s reporting was accurate — it just didn’t fit the timing in which Brady’s camp would’ve preferred.
