Relax, New England Patriots fans — Tom Brady will be back next season.
The five-time Super Bowl champion was one of the many high-profile guests at the Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Monday, where he was interviewed by sportscaster Jim Gray.
To kick off the conversation, Gray, who regularly interviews Brady on Westwood One radio, asked: “Are we going to be cliche-ridden namby-pamby bull—t, or are we going to light it up?”
The tone of the conversation was the latter, as Brady replied: “I think keeping it real and being authentic is the best way.”
The most important question, of course, was will the 40-year-old QB be playing next season?
“There’s been a tremendous amount of speculation and confusion that you’re not going to play,” Gray said. “Are you going to play in 2018, has anything changed in that interview that we did on Super Bowl Sunday?” [when Brady said he’d be back.]
After a bit of wordplay and a few laughs, Brady confirmed, “Yes, I’m going to be playing. Yes, I will be. I have personal goals and I want to keep playing. I’ve said for a long time that I want to play until my mid-40s. I was told three years ago when I was 36 or 37, ‘you can’t keep playing … why would you keep playing? You’re not going to win a Super Bowl.’
“That’s a great challenge for me, I think I’ve been challenged my whole life. I feel like I can do it. I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the years — like the evolution of my routine and how efficient I am. I have a great plan and system in place,” he continued. “I love making the commitment; I love working hard and I want to do it as long as I can to inspire other people who don’t think they can do it or were told that they can’t do it.”
Earlier in the panel titled “Lord of the Rings: A Conversation With Five-Time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady,” TB12 described the grind of his long career as he heads into his 19th season.
“You’re climbing mountains every week, and every season and every year — it’s hard to get to the top. It takes every bit of energy you have, every bit of determination you have.
“A couple of years ago it ended the perfect way, and last year kind of sucked … but that’s sports,” Brady said.
When asked if he had recovered from the 41-33 Super Bowl loss against the Philadelphia Eagles, Brady replied: “After this season, I finished the game. I am walking to the locker room and I had my wife there and three kids … they were crying, and I thought, ‘I can’t be crying.’ I said, ‘This is sports, Daddy doesn’t always win.”
“Would I rather win? Of course, but I am also playing to get the best out of myself,” he added.
Brady was also quizzed by Gray as to why cornerback Malcolm Butler didn’t play in Super Bowl LII, at which point he was slightly stumped saying: “I don’t make those decisions … I wish he had played, but the coach decided not to play him,” adding that he didn’t ask why Butler was benched. “That’s probably a better question for the guy who owns our team … I can only do my job the best that I can.”
Butler, who was the hero of Super Bowl XLIX in 2014 against the Seattle Seahawks, has since been traded to the Tennessee Titans.
Gray went on to reference a comment made by Brady’s wife, Gisele Bündchen, in Gotham Chopra’s “Tom vs. Time” docu-series, when she said she just wanted her husband to be happy.
“I have my moments,” he replied, confirming that he is happy with the people he works with despite reports of divisions within the Pats franchise. “I am a very happy person. I am a very positive person … but it is just my personality, I always look at things like the glass is half full.
“There are no people I’d rather play for or be committed to than the team I’ve been with for a long time,” he added.
Watch the video above, and click here for the full interview.
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