Nate Burleson thinks Tom Brady made a mistake coming back.
Burleson joined his former cohorts on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” on Friday morning after the Buccaneers lost to the Ravens to fall to 3-5.
“Tom should’ve retired,” the former wide receiver said. “Am I the only one thinking it? Here’s the thing: we’ve been praising Tom Brady for 20 years and said that he’s the GOAT, the greatest quarterback that ever played, put him in the conversation with the greats across all of sports. It’s okay to have some criticism.”
The elephant in the room is that Brady, 45, has been going through a divorce from model Gisele Bündchen. The news the divorce was finalized broke right around the time this segment was airing on Friday. The extent to which this has affected Brady’s performance on the football field is unknown.
Burleson compared Brady to Michael Jordan on the Wizards, and felt that if Brady had retired after winning the Super Bowl with the Bucs in the 2020-21 season it “would’ve been the greatest walk-off in all of sports.”
However, Brady is now in his second season since that Super Bowl, and Tampa Bay has been faltering.
“It’s a combination of things,” Burleson said. “The rhythm isn’t there. The juice isn’t there. And he just doesn’t look like the Tom Brady of old — he looks like an older Tom Brady.”
The silver lining for Brady and the Bucs is that they have not as of yet dug themselves into so deep a hole that their season is unsalvageable. In fact, they are still -160 favorites to win the NFC South, according to the latest odds on FanDuel.
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