Inside Tom Brady’s Un-Retirement

Ben Volin, reporting for The Boston Globe:

On Feb. 1, Tom Brady announced that he was stepping away from football. The Buccaneers moved ahead with Bruce Arians as head coach and assessed their options at quarterback.

By March 30, Brady was back with the Bucs, preparing to play his 23rd NFL season at age 45. And his head coach was Todd Bowles after Arians retired and took a consulting job with the team.

How did this drastic turn of events take place in just two months? This wasn’t a Brett Favre situation, with Brady walking away for several months before getting the itch again during training camp. Brady was “retired” for all of 40 days, and came back in time for the Buccaneers to be active in free agency.

Instead, Brady’s change of heart was the result of a fascinating fall of dominos involving the Miami Dolphins, Sean Payton, Brian Flores’s lawsuit, former Patriots offensive lineman Rich Ohrnberger, and a Manchester United soccer match.

This story is kind of bananas on the surface, but makes sense. The real fly in the ointment of the whole scheme was Brian Flores’s discrimination lawsuit against the Dolphins and the NFL. If not for that, today Tom Brady might be part-owner of the Dolphins and their starting quarterback next season — in the same division as the Patriots. But Flores’s lawsuit was at least partially precipitated by an errant text message sent to him by … Bill Belichick!

★ Tuesday, 12 April 2022