Tom Brady is a week into his own retirement, so he has thoughts on whether Aaron Rodgers should join him on the other side.
On Brady's latest episode of his SiriusXM podcast “Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray,” the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback said he hopes Rodgers keeps his career going for now.
"You know what, I hope he doesn't retire," Brady said. "... I think the league needs good quarterbacks, and he's one of the greats. So if he retires, it'll be a sad day for the league."
Knowing when to walk away is tough for any player, much less a star who has been chasing a second Super Bowl ring with the Packers for more than a decade. But to Brady's eye, Rodgers had a pretty remarkable 2022 season all things considered.
"Certainly from the standpoint of him leaving the game the way that he's playing, he broke his thumb this year and still played tremendous(ly)," Brady said. "And you could see as he got healthy throughout the year how incredibly talented he is.
"So I hope the good players keep playing. That's what my hope is. That's what I tried to do. And now you hope that the next generation does that and I hope they have the tools necessary to do that. I was very fortunate to work with a guy, Alex (Guerrero), who is my best friend, a brother to me and taught me so much."
Brady, who said last week he'll be delaying his foray into broadcasting for a year before joining FOX Sports, harped on the idea of wanting the "good players" to continue playing. He surprised some people early last season when he ranted on the quality of play around the league, saying, "I think there's a lot of bad football from what I watch. I watch a lot of bad football. Poor quality of football. That's what I see."
But his tune did change when it came to Super Bowl LVII. Brady called the Chiefs-Eagles classic a "pretty epic game" and "saw a lot of great quarterbacking" from Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.
"I felt Jalen played incredible," Brady said. "Patrick played really clutch when he had to. And it was a very fitting end to a great season. And the two best teams throughout the course of the year were in the Super Bowl, and they played really one of the great games all season. So it was really fun to watch."
Brady might not be playing anymore, but he'll always be a quarterback at heart. In his mind, they're the position that drives the success and popularity of the game.
"I hope these other guys like Patrick can play a long time," Brady said. "And Jalen can play a long time. And Josh (Allen) and Joe Burrow and these tremendous players that bring so much. That's why we watch -- not because of the color of the jerseys, because of the players in the jerseys."
Will Rodgers not only keep going but also crash that Super Bowl party -- the one Brady invited himself to 10 times -- once more? Maybe. But if that happens, Rodgers first must emerge from a self-imposed “darkness retreat” he's been planning for himself for a few years.
The idea of Brady spending four days in a dark hut with two food slots is pretty amusing. He didn't have too many specific thoughts on that concept but did agree with Rodgers that detaching from the hyper-online world in search of clarity isn't a bad idea.
"Everyone has their different processes they go through," Brady said. "And you know what, I think we all need to get off our phone a little bit more. I think we all need to get away from the TV a little bit more. I think we all need a little more nature and a little more silence and a little more peace.
"And however he's going about it, good for him. Everyone's got their unique way to process the season. It's very intense for all of us, and everyone gets to choose what they want to do."
