Even after two retirements and a Hall of Fame career already secured, the NFL’s emergency contact list still seems to have Tom Brady at the top. After all, he loves the game. And there’s still a sense that a part of him misses being out there. NFL teams know that, too, or at least a few of them do, which is why, when Brady walked away for the second time, one of them picked up the phone.

“Yes, when I retired the second time, there was a team that reached out. But I’m not gonna tell you who. I’m gonna leave you guys guessing on that. But it was actually a little bit intriguing. But at that time, I was pretty certain that I was done-done,” Brady said.

After 23 seasons, Brady finally stepped away from the NFL in early 2023, this time calling it permanent. That came after the first retirement, the reversal, and another run at it. It’s still strange to picture now, a 48-year-old Brady running out of the tunnel, helmet on, ready to go.

But it’s not just about age. Since retiring, Brady has stayed plenty busy. He signed a 10-year deal with FOX to join the network’s top broadcast crew. He’s invested in multiple sports teams, along with a long list of other ventures. By any measure, his calendar is full. From the outside, unretiring feels more like a fun thought exercise than a realistic option.

Still, it’s worth noting that Brady has never completely slammed the door. In past comments, he’s said he wouldn’t rule it out if everything lined up the right way, even though his ownership stake in the Raiders and his broadcasting role make that path complicated. For fans, that’s probably enough to keep the idea alive.

Is there even the slightest chance of Tom Brady unretiring?

Despite all the logistics, there’s always that lingering thought that Brady could find his way back onto a field. Listen closely to how he phrased it.

He said, “At that time, I was pretty certain that I was done-done.”

Emphasis on at that time. Which naturally leads to the next question: what about now? Retirement hasn’t changed him much physically. Brady has stayed in elite shape, and taking a look at Philip Rivers’ return to the Colts just amplifies the idea of Brady coming back someday. And in a league where plenty of quarterbacks struggle to clear 4,000 yards, it’s not hard to imagine him holding his own.

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Based on the way Brady talked on The Big Podcast with Shaq, he clearly thinks he has more than a little left. Not only that, he sounded convinced he could handle today’s defenses without much trouble. The longtime Patriots quarterback, and brief Buccaneers one, said he’d only need about a month to get himself back to starting form.

“I’d whoop a– right now. Absolutely. I could go out there and play. Give me a month, I could go play with anybody. I took care of my body great. Everything is great… I could do it all. What I wouldn’t do is make the commitment to play, because it’s like, do you really want to commit to playing (the whole season)? That takes a lot of training. I don’t want to do that anymore,” he said.

None of that is exactly surprising. Tom Brady has always believed in what he can do. At least now, he’s saying it out loud. If there were ever some kind of loophole that made a return possible without the full grind, you get the sense he’d listen. And maybe, eventually, we’ll find out which team made that call.