Just nine short months removed from first announcing his retirement from the NFL, we now find Tom Brady back out on the football field once more.  Brady, 45, is eight weeks into his twenty-third season, and to put it lightly, he is struggling on and off the field. 

First, let’s address the elephant in the room, the marital issues.  Tom Brady is currently choosing a sub-par return to football over his thirteen year marriage to Brazilian supermodel  Gisele Bündchen, who by the way, still makes more money than him, and is one of the highest paid models in the world.  The issues began hot off the heels of Brady’s decision to go back on his retirement plans, and return to the field for a twenty-third run in pro football.  Bündchen recently gave him his final ultimatum, stating that  “either he leaves football to spend time with the family or she is gone for good,”  When previously questioned on his choice to continue in the NFL by Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray, Brady responded to his SiriusXM co-hosts by saying “I’ve never quit on anything in my life.”  Following these statements from each person, the couple finalized their divorce after thirteen years of marriage.  The announcement came on October 29th, following increased threats of Bündchen threatening to leave Tom Brady if he continued his football career.  Brady followed these events by taking his children out for the day and spending quality time with them.

While all of the drama of his personal life is unfolding off the football field, his struggles on the field have become more and more apparent as the weeks go on.  The Buccaneers have given Tom Brady arguably one of the worst starts in his career.  The last time a team led by Tom Brady was below a .500 win percentage was when his 2001 Patriots got off to a 3-4 start.  With an ever-crumbling offensive line, coupled with injuries up and down the roster, The Buccaneers camp is running out of excuses for their slowly failing team.  Tampa Bay has had a rough go to start out the season, only starting out with three wins through the first eight weeks.  Even with the three wins, only one was a decisive victory.  Going against the Cowboys on Opening Day, Tom Brady led his Buccaneers into AT&T Stadium, and left with a commanding 19-3 victory.  While starting the season out with a win is certainly a morale booster for the team, they followed this performance with two more squeak-by wins, as well as blowout losses to teams statistically worse than them.  

That brings us to the present, Brady recently stated in a postgame interview with NBC Sports that there was “No retirement in my future.” Following this statement, we will have to sit back and see what will  happen in the professional and personal life of future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.