Over the past few seasons, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has talked about playing until he's 50 years old, playing until he's 45 years old and playing into his early 40s.
Now, the team's ownership is also giving a window into their 39-year-old MVP's timeline.
"As recently as two, three days ago, he assured me he's willing to play six, seven more years," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Monday at the Annual League Meeting. "At the level he performed, there is no one who would be happier than I am and our fan base. When you think about it, there's one player at the age of 40 who had one good year: Favre (when he was with) the Vikings.
"I think Tommy's sustained excellence is just unbelievable. It's a lifestyle. He's in training. I remember after our first Super Bowl going down to the trainer in the old Foxboro Stadium three days after we won and he's in there with the music blaring, working out. The thing that's amazing about him, to this day he hasn't changed as a human being in terms of how he relates to people, but also how he works out. The only thing is he changes how he eats, how he diets. I'm not sure avocado ice cream is right for me, so if I can look like him and perform half as well, I guess I'll do it."
Kraft added that he hopes the 64-year-old Bill Belichick coaches into his eighties.
"You see Warren Buffet and Rupert Murdoch, they're in their mid-eighties and performing in a pretty high level, so we're going to keep Bill healthy," Kraft said.
While one seems more possible than the other, it is interesting to see the reaction to every single revelation of a Brady timeline. The NFL has been gifted with their all-time greatest player, who seems to be peaking in his late thirties and rolling into age 40 with renewed vigor, yet fans and media types like myself are obsessed with when it will end.
Over 12 games last year, Brady threw for 3,554 yards, 28 touchdowns and just two interceptions. He threw for 466 yards amid the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history and, this offseason, watched as his team gobbled up one of the best deep threats in football.
Should the six- or seven-year timeline be accurate, we will have to start talking about Brady's career in eras instead of in totality. Of course, there is no way to validate that information or plan around it. Instead, plan on enjoying what you see this season and taking it from there. In reality, that's what the Patriots are doing, anyway.
