Tom Brady hints he will play until 45 on ESPN Instagram post

Tom Brady may have given everyone a pump fake on his retirement speculation.

The Patriots quarterback, who turns 41 on Aug. 3, said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday that “I think about it more than I used to. I think I’m seeing there’s definitely an end coming, sooner rather than later.”

Yet on an ESPN Instagram post that featured the quote, Brady commented, “cuarenta y cinco,” which is the number 45 in Spanish, accompanied with three monkey emojis.

The comments suggests he wants to play until 45, which he has said in the past, and seems to be Brady trying to quell the fire he fueled when he said retirement was “sooner rather than later.”

Yet in his interview with Winfrey, he was asked if he would retire at 43 or 45 but the Patriots quarterback did not give a straight answer.

“As long as I'm still loving it. As long as I'm loving the preparation, the training, I'm willing to make the commitment,” he said. “I think what I alluded to a lot in the [‘Tom vs. Time’] docuseries was there's other things happening in my life, too. I do have kids that I love, and I don't want to be a dad that's not there driving my kids to their games.”

Brady has two years remaining on his contract and is coming off a season in which the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Eagles.

Brady threw for 505 yards and three touchdowns in the game, so he certainly has not shown any signs of slowing down.