Former coach: Tom Brady torn between retirement, one team

Recently retired Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen echoed a report by saying he thinks Tom Brady was torn only between retirement and spending another season with the Bucs. 

"That’s hard for a guy like him that loves football and loves playing and loves his family," Christensen told WTVT-TV Channel 13 sports anchor Kevin O’Donnell, as shared by the Joe Bucs Fan website. "It’s a natural conflict that all coaches and all players tend to go through." 

Shortly after Brady announced his "for good" retirement on Wednesday morning, ESPN's Jeff Darlington tweeted and repeated that Brady never intended to hit free agency when the new league year opens in March despite numerous reports linking him with clubs such as the San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas Raiders and Miami Dolphins. Brady has yet to offer an in-depth explanation for why he didn't remain Tampa Bay's QB1 for another year, but Darlington noted that the future Hall of Famer is "exhausted."

Christensen is said to be close with Brady and recently admitted in a different interview he "worried" about the seven-time Super Bowl champion as he and Gisele Bündchen went through a "heartbreaking" divorce. On Thursday, Christensen told O’Donnell why he always assumed Brady wouldn't have left his current hometown to play for a different franchise later this year. 

"He loved Tampa," Christensen said about TB12. "He loved the organization. I think he loved his teammates. I really always believed it was going to be [a choice of convenience]. He could take off on a Tuesday and go pick up his kids from school and then be back here and still get his work done. I think it was Tampa. He loved living here. It was extremely practical from his family situation." 

One reason some thought Brady could start for either the Buccaneers or Dolphins in 2023 is that the 45-year-old has two children living with Bündchen in Florida and one son living in New York. Instead, it sounds as if the G.O.A.T. is "very secure in his decision" to permanently ride off into the sunset this time around.