{"id":835329,"date":"2026-03-26T18:35:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/835329\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:35:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:35:24","slug":"tom-brady-inquired-with-nfl-about-return-to-play-they-dont-like-that-idea-very-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/835329\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Brady inquired with NFL about return to play: \u2018They don\u2019t like that idea very much\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady turned plenty of heads when he avoided a sack and threw a touchdown pass to wide receiver Stefon Diggs in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic<\/a> in Los Angeles last week. Brady shared the play by reposting it on X<\/a>, with the caption, \u201cGets you thinking\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Brady kept his post vague, leaving plenty of room for interpretation. One of those interpretations was Brady indicating that he was considering suiting back up and throwing touchdown passes in the NFL. In an interview with CNBC this week, Brady dismissed the idea of an NFL comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happily retired, let me just say that,\u201d Brady said. \u201cI loved being out there playing in the flag game. I loved not getting hit. I\u2019ve got a lot of really fun things I\u2019m involved in. It\u2019s never going to be old throwing passes to incredible athletes on the football field. But if anything, that game reconfirmed to me that I\u2019m very happy in my retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Brady retired from playing in the NFL in 2023, he\u2019s gotten involved in a variety of ventures. Most notably, Brady has become the No. 1 color commentator for the NFL on Fox and a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. In the\u00a0<\/a>CNBC interview<\/a>, Brady wasn\u2019t asked directly whether he\u2019s considered returning to play in the NFL, but he was asked whether he\u2019s looked into the league\u2019s rules on someone\u00a0involved in ownership also being a player.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny enough you ask, I actually have inquired,\u201d Brady said. \u201cThey don\u2019t like that idea very much, so I\u2019m going to leave it at that. We explored a lot of different things. And I\u2019m very happily retired, let me just say that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, the NFL adopted a policy prohibiting players and non-family team employees from holding equity in a team. If Brady, who turns 49 years old in August, were to explore playing again, he would need to sell his share in the Raiders\u2019 ownership. Additionally, as was the case with Philip Rivers returning to play in the 2025 season, his Hall of Fame eligibility clock would reset. Currently, Brady is on pace to be eligible for the Hall of Fame class of 2028.<\/p>\n

Between his broadcast job and Raiders ownership, Brady has already been in the spotlight for a potential conflict of interest<\/a>, a notion that he\u2019s dismissed<\/a> as \u201cparanoia and distrust.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New England Patriots selected Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. Brady went on to play 23 years in the league, with the first 20 years with the Patriots and the final three with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady holds many all-time quarterback records and is widely regarded as the greatest to ever play the position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady turned plenty of heads when he avoided a sack and threw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,156,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-835329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-newengland","12":"tag-newenglandpatriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-patriots","15":"tag-sports-business","16":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116296923970577369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}