Tom Brady says his retirement is 'unlikely,' stops short of confirming return to Patriots

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady seemed as calm, cool and collected as ever as he took the podium following his team's wild-card round loss to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday.

While the NFL veteran's press conference began with questions about his team's struggles during the game and the entirety of the season, it quickly — and predictably — turned to questions about Brady's future. Will he retire? Will he stay with the Patriots? What's next?

Brady, who has likely become accustomed to hearing and deflecting such questions over the past few seasons, managed to say both nothing and everything at the same time in his calculated responses.

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"I love the Patriots," he said while wearing a navy blue beanie that matches the team's primary color. "Playing for Mr. Kraft all these years, and for coach Belichick, there's nobody who's had a better career, I would say, than me, just being with them."

"I love playing football. I love playing for this team. I've loved playing for this team for two decades and winning a lot of games."

"A lot of games" is certainly an understatement for Brady, whose 219 career regular season wins — a league record — and 64 career losses equate to a winning percentage of .774%, all with New England.

But does his love for the team, owner and head coach he's spent nearly two decades with overshadow his possible desire to play elsewhere, or to retire? While Brady called his retirement "pretty unlikely," he declined to elaborate further on his upcoming career plans.

"Who knows what the future holds?" he said. "We'll leave it at that."

Brady, who will turn 43 just before the start of next season, will become a free agent when his current contract with the Patriots expires this offseason. The team is unable to use a franchise tag on its star quarterback.

"I'm very blessed and I don't know what the future looks like and I'm not going to predict it," Brady said on Saturday, before simply stating, "I wish we had won tonight."

The loss against the Titans came in New England's first wild-card round appearance since 2009. It marked the team's first one-and-done postseason performance since 2010.

See more from the NFL playoffs so far: