Tom Vs. Time Chapter 5: Retirement Far From Tom Brady's Mind
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady isn't showing any signs of slowing down on the football field. His drive off the field isn't dwindling either.
ESPN may be trying their darnedest to predict the end of the Brady-Bill Belichick era in New England, but Brady isn't going anywhere. The fifth installment on Brady's documentary series Tom vs. Time, titled "The Spiritual Game," focuses on Brady's love of the game and how it goes deeper than just slinging a football.
"I'm trying to find that deeper purpose," Brady said in the episode's introduction. "To live it through sports in a very authentic way makes so much sense to me. Having these dreams or goals or aspirations and waking up and putting in the work and miracles happening and all this magic that sports creates, I'm in the middle of it. I get to live that through sports."
We see Brady spending some time in Costa Rica two months ahead of the 2017 season, hitting some waves on his surf board. While surfing may be relaxing, Brady calls it the hardest sport he's ever done.
"I'm glad I can play one sport decently," he joked.
That TB12, so humble. But football is far more than a sport for Brady. He fell in love with the game at the age of four, watching his idol Joe Montana quarterback the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl championships. Brady's been perfecting his game for 27 years, and it's become far more than just a game he plays. It's been a part of who he is for decades now.
"It's effortless because it's just so synonymous with my being," Brady said. "When I'm out on the field in front of 70,000 people, I can really be who I am, with my raw emotion and my energy. If I want to scream at somebody, I can scream at somebody. That's why, probably, I love football so much. It allows for me to be who I am in a very authentic way that it's hard for me to be when I walk off the field."
As for retirement, it isn't coming soon. His wife, Gisele Bundchen, thought it might come after last year's Super Bowl comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons.
"When I met him in 2006, he said, 'Listen, I'm just going to play for 10 more years and I'm going to win one Super Bowl and I'm going to be happy,'" she recalled.
"I thought this is great, you know, like, what a great win," she said of Super Bowl LI. "I was ready, and then he's like no."
"I still got a few more to go," chimed in Brady.
"I don't think I've ever met anybody in my entire life that loves to do something as much as he loves football," added Bundchen.
It's well known that Brady wants to play until his mid-40s, and he's not backing off that stance.
"I don't feel like I'm on the last half," said Brady. "I still feel like I'm on the first half; I still feel like I'm charging ahead. It takes up a lot of my time, but there will come a time when that ends."
Asked when that time may come, Brady joked that the camera was out of battery.
So fret not Patriots fans, Brady has no intention of hanging up his cleats anytime soon.
"Tom vs. Time" is not done just yet, either. While Chapter 5 was set to be the final installment, director Gotham Chopra said earlier this week from Minnesota that he will be following Brady around after Sunday night's Super Bowl LII for a Chapter 6, which will be released at an undisclosed date.
