Joe Burrow Says He Wasn’t Surprised Tom Brady Returned to NFL

The Bengals quarterback expected the Buccaneers quarterback to play all along.

Many people believed that Tom Brady’s brief retirement was going to be permanent, but not everyone. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow always thought Brady was going to return for the 2022 season.

“Did anybody actually think he was going to be retired?” Burrow asked while appearing on the Full Send Podcast.

Burrow explained his theory as to why Brady retired and unretired all in a span of about 40 days total.

“He’s playing way too well to give it up right now,” he said. “I think he wanted to shut down the conversation because if he didn’t announce his retirement, everybody would be talking about ‘Is he retiring? Is he not retiring?’ So I think he went ahead and did it to get everybody off his back so he could think about it.”

Joe Burrow on @TomBrady retiring. New episode out NOW.https://t.co/DEhAHSzThR@AdamSchefter @espn pic.twitter.com/Tz1wQv3MF9

— Monkey Tilt (@MonkeyTiltPlay) May 18, 2022

Brady’s initial retirement announcement came just one week after the Buccaneers were eliminated from the playoffs. There was a ton of smoke around his retirement, as many league insiders believed he was going to hang it all up.

However, Brady announced his return right before the beginning of free agency, allowing Tampa Bay to prepare for the 2022 season with the veteran quarterback. He is still playing at an extremely high level, coming in second in MVP voting last year.

While Brady isn’t ready to walk away yet, he is preparing for life after playing. Fox recently announced that Brady will join the network as a color commentator once he decides to officially retire.

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