Tom Brady’s Father, Agent Deny Reports That Quarterback Has Decided To Retire

BOSTON (CBS) — ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington dropped a major news bomb on Saturday with the report stating Tom Brady is officially retiring from football at the age of 44. The football world, as you might expect, reacted in a huge way.

But there’s a chance that the report was premature.

Since the story broke, several people — including Brady’s father and his agent — have refuted the report, and some reporters have done some digging to discover that a final decision might have not been made by Brady.

On the San Francisco-based KRON TV station, Tom Brady Sr. said that his son is not retiring.

Brady’s father also sent a text message to ESPN, stating, “Tommy has made no such determination” on retirement. He went on to tell NFL Network that any reports of a retirement decision are “absolutely wrong.”

Brady’s agent, Don Yee, did not outright deny the report when communicating with reporters. He did, however, say that “Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy,” and that an announcement about retirement or continuing to play should come “soon.”

Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston, who’s long been tied to the Brady camp, said that Brady is out of the country and will remain there for the upcoming week.

Elsewhere, three separate reporters have indicated that Brady called the Buccaneers this weekend and indicated that he has yet to make a decision on his future. The Athletic’s Jeff Howe added the detail that Brady told the team “he’s not even close to making a decision.”

The TB12 company also deleted a tweet thanking Brady for all the memories.

What this means, exactly, is hard to say.

It is possible that the rebuttals and denials are fully accurate, and that Brady has indeed not yet decided what he’ll do.

It’s also possible that Brady — a careful manager of his own messaging, the executive producer of his own documentary series, a social media influencer with nearly 18 million followers across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — has his own plans and desires for how and when he wants to tell the football world that he’s walking away from the game that he’s dominated for two decades.

Whatever it may be, it’s clear that Brady’s camp is working hard to dampen the impact of ESPN’s initial report that the retirement decision has been made.