Tom Brady and the question of retirement

EThere is one episode in the life of Tom Brady that is unknown even to many who think they are well acquainted with the life of Tom Brady. This episode is set in New England in the mid-2000s and, of course, stars Tom Brady. In the other role: Matt Cassel, then backup quarterback for the Patriots, the football team with which Brady was to build an unrivaled dynasty in the National Football League (NFL) in these and subsequent years.

The events of this episode begin in the Patriots’ cafeteria, where Brady used to like to sit in a seat just inside the front door. One day, Cassel once said, he, i.e. Cassel, stepped through this door with particular vigour, whereupon his teammate and future star of the NFL, i.e. Brady, angrily made it clear that he, i.e. Cassel, would do that in the future please let go before anyone else gets hurt. Cassel, who was always ready for a joke, sensed his chance and of course didn’t refrain from making a sweeping entrance through the canteen’s front door. That’s where the real surprise begins in this episode.

Tom Brady’s goal: maximum success

Brady, meanwhile the most successful player who has ever played in the NFL (and will probably remain so for a long time), owes this success to his personality, his nature, his attitude to professional sports. Brady is not a particularly outgoing person, not a speaker, not one who distracts others or, more importantly, allows himself to be distracted. Throughout his career he had one goal in mind, and he always and exclusively pursued this goal with the greatest possible ambition: maximum success. A goal that, one hears, also extended and extends to his private life.

The balance? First: a happy marriage to Brazilian Gisele Bundchen and three children (two with Bundchen, one with actress Bridget Moynahan). But also: seven Super Bowl victories, multiple awards as the most valuable player in the league, his own company that sells training and nutrition tips as well as merchandise for a profit. Brady’s life and career planning, which has always been well thought out, has, one can say, worked out.

Which brings us back to the Patriots canteen. That’s when young Brady, who came to the NFL from college as a no-name in 2000, made a decision that didn’t correspond to his nature at all, at least not from today’s perspective. Instead of simply looking for another seat and thus getting away from the boisterous substitute Cassel, in short: not letting himself be distracted, he simply put his foot in front of the door when Cassel rushed up again.

Cassel crashed into it with full force and spilled his lunch all over his head and clothes. Brady had actively pursued his concern, thereby solving it (Cassel would step more calmly through the door from now on), but also allowing a distraction that would keep him busy for quite a while.