Cowboys vs. Bucs Tom Brady Final Game? Retirement Like 'Choosing Death'

Retirement? New team? First things first, of course, and Tom Brady's job now is to lead the Buccaneers to a Monday night win over the visiting Dallas Cowboys.

FRISCO - The conversation was ostensibly about Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his once-again contemplation of retirement.

But it involved Tampa Bay Bucs QB Tom Brady, who is about to face the Dallas Cowboys to open Wild Card Weekend. ... and maybe "contemplating, “in my mind, a death,'' as Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young put it. "And who chooses death?''

Maybe that seems a tad dramatic ... especially as the NFL is still shaken as a result of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's injury and a literal contemplation of something very real. But Young is thoughtful expert on the subject and his words have value here as he and Brady discussed the Rodgers retirement situation during the latest episode of Brady’s Let’s Go! podcast ...

While also looking at what faces Brady at age 45.

Tom Brady and Steve Young discussed Aaron Rodgers’s potential retirement decision on the ‘Let’s Go!’ podcast https://t.co/M2rftdX7an

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 10, 2023

Young’s views on what it means to walk away - and Brady’s current views on calling it quits?

“What (Rodgers) is contemplating is, in my mind, a death,'' Young said frankly. "Because when you’re the best at something in the world and then you leave the game and the next day you’re not that anymore and you find out — you know what? — I’m not actually even good at anything else. . . . So you end up wanting so much to go back to the thing I was great at. ...''

Continued Young: "I always tell people, ‘The next day (after retiring) you’re at the bottom of a cliff in a broken sack of bones. And then you gotta stand up and start doing something different. But it’s never going to be the same. It’ll never be as all-encompassing, every bit of yourself poured out every week. 

"There’s nothing like it.

"And that’s why Aaron is sitting in that spot, looking over the cliff going, ‘I don’t want to fall down there. I don’t want to go there. I don’t.''

Brady's response?

“Steve brings out the perfect point,” Brady said. “Those are absolutely legitimate feelings and emotions.''

Brady of course retired last season before changing his mind. Given this conversation, he's not likely to make a quick decision this time around, either - especially with so many rumors of teams that might fight for his services.

First things first, of course, and his job now is to lead the Buccaneers to a Monday night win over the visiting Dallas Cowboys.

And the Cowboys' job? Speaking as frankly as Steve Young here, the Cowboys job is to make Tom Brady think that retirement sounds like a pretty good idea.

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