Tom Brady Wants to Play Until 2025

Tom Brady says he wants to play for another decade.

“I’d like to play a long time,” the three-time Super Bowl MVP explained on a Wednesday conference call. “There’s a lot that goes into playing well. I’ve played with a lot of great teammates. But I want to play for a long time, maybe 10 more years. I think that’s probably what my goal is.”

At 38, Brady looks like an early favorite to win the NFL MVP award. He owns the league’s highest passer rating and best completion percentage. Through six games he has thrown for 11 touchdowns next to a single interception, one of the tip-drill variety that Julian Edelman bobbled into Colts safety Mike Adams’ hands.

“Well, it’s not always up to me,” Brady concedes of his ambitious plan. “That’s what my goals are, so that’s just what I’m hoping.”

Brady played with two fortysomething quarterbacks early in his tenure with the Patriots. But Heisman Trophy-winners Vinny Testaverde and Doug Flutie served as backups at that stage of their careers. Brady clearly sees himself under center rather than holding a clip board.

In ten years, Brady turns 48. That’s just how old the late George Blanda played until. But Blanda, who started his career before China fell to the Communists and ended it after Saigon fell to the Communists, likely never regarded Coca-Cola as “poison” or Frosted Flakes as “food” in scare quotes. Brady’s purist dietary notions perhaps underlie his statement that “a lot that goes into playing well.”