Speak For Yourself: Should Tom Brady go out on top like John Elway if the Patriots win?
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has publicly stated that he hopes to continue playing until he's 45, but at the age of 39 — he'll be 40 before the start of the 2017 NFL season — there's always a chance Brady could decide to call it a career if he wins a historic fifth Super Bowl championship on Sunday against the Falcons (6:30 p.m. ET on FOX).
On Thursday's episode of "Speak For Yourself", Michael Bennett, Ray Lewis and Cris Carter each explained what they believe the future holds for Tom Brady.
Michael Bennett: Tom Brady is attempting to do something no man has done before
“He’s chasing something nobody’s ever chased before. He’s setting the new standard. That’s what Tom Brady’s about. He’s setting a whole new standard. What if he wins 10 Super Bowls?
"That’s the kind of man he is. He’s chasing something greater than any other player has tried to do before.
".... He’s also the quarterback that slides. They all want to be fancy. They all want to be spin moves. Tom Brady’s like ‘I’m about to get sacked? Sorry, Belichick, we can do it on the next down.’"
Ray Lewis: Tom Brady says he's not done yet
"I talked with Tom about this, this is funny, at the Super Bowl (a year) ago. Carolina and Denver.
"We’re sitting there and I said ‘How many more years are you going to play?’
"He said ‘Man I’m going to go another five.’
"And I looked at him and saw he was really serious. I think, for me, it was a little bit different because my kids are older. The last phone call that I got that changed my perspective on if I wanted to keep playing was my son said ‘Dad, we have our championship game on Friday night.’
"My son’s a senior in high school and I’m saying ‘Wait a minute. I done played 17 years, my son just told me he’s playing his last high school game.’ My father’s never seen one of my high school games. I’m like ‘I can’t fight with that anymore.’ I gave up the game because I wanted to be there for my kids."
Cris Carter: Tom Brady should play for as long as he can
“It’s easy for us to sit over here and be like ‘Hey you know something? You should walk out of that spotlight. Like, you should go do something else.’
"When you retire from the National Football League, every job you get is second or third or fourth choice.
"Ray quit? I’m going to tell you why. He got knocked out the game. His son was calling, fatherhood was calling him, but that body was calling him too.
"Jim Brown walked out on top. The rest of them? John Elway? He got knocked out. John Elway couldn’t run anymore. John Elway’s knees were gone.
"Tom Brady is sitting upright, he’s playing the best football of his life as he approaches 40. Now he should set the new standard. He should put this out there as far as it could be, to let people know that the argument's not between ‘Who is the best quarterback?’ The next argument’s going to be ‘Who is the second-best quarterback?’"
