While chatting about holiday plans with Oprah, Tom Brady shared what he’s most looking forward to during life in retirement.
Tom Brady is looking forward to days where NFL season doesn’t coincide with the holidays. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, 44, spoke about his Thanksgiving plans with Oprah Winfrey on his SiriusXM podcast Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray on Nov. 22, where he mused about a post-football future that would allow him more time with loved ones during the holiday season.
With Thanksgiving in the middle of football season, “It’s always kind of just mashed together,” Tom said. “We usually have a game on that Sunday. It’s like, ‘Hurry up.’ Thanksgiving is here. It’s upon us. The holidays just kind of come and go.” He continued, “Thanksgiving, there’s a lot to be thankful for, but you only get about four hours to enjoy it: Practice usually ends about 1 or 2 p.m. You eat about 3:30 and then you’re getting ready for the next day of practice, and then same thing with Christmas.”
The quarterback added, “I’m looking forward to the time when I’m done playing football so that I can have some of those more normal holidays that I had growing up that were important where the family’s all together.” While the athlete has a notoriously strict diet (one that consists of all natural and whole foods), he admitted that he’ll be indulging in all the Thanksgiving goods this year, diet be damned. “That’s the one meal where I’m like, screw it, let’s go for it,” he said. “And we all get to enjoy it.”
Tom has been vocal about his retirement plans in the past, explaining that he “owes” it his family to consider retirement — possibly at the age of 45. The athlete has been married to model Gisele Bündchen since 2009. They share children Vivian, 8, and Benjamin, 11, together. Tom also shares John, 14, with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan. “I play because I love the game,” he said on SiriusXM’s Town Hall in July. “We shouldn’t stop our life, even though we love something because it’s just, someone puts an arbitrary timeline on that.”
He continued, “I think I committed to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to play till I’m 45.’ And this year I’ll be 44, which naturally takes me to the next year. I’ve got a two-year contract. We’ll see what happens beyond that. Things change as you get older, and there’s a lot of different responsibilities I have in my life. My kids and my family is certainly very important, and they made a lot of sacrifice over a long period of time to watch me play. So, you know, I owe it to them, too.”
