Tom Brady on Aaron Rodgers' fresh start with Jets: 'I think he's gonna have a great year'
After 18 seasons and 252 total games with the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers is mere days from starting for the New York Jets for the first time. It'll be a new experience for Jets fans, for Packers fans (who will be watching Jordan Love at QB), but most of all for Rodgers.
Not a lot of players know what Rodgers is going through right now, jumping to a new team after nearly two decades with your old one. But there is someone out there who does know what he's going through: Tom Brady.
Brady is retired now, but he jumped to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 after 20 years with the New England Patriots. On "Let's Go," the podcast Brady does with Jim Gray, he discussed what Rodgers may have been experiencing, and how he thinks Rodgers will feel going into a new season with a new team.
"Well, it's just, there's a different energy about it. It's a newness. It's a fresh start to try to take where you've been, to bring all the good and then not to bring the tough lessons, you know? Because sometimes the tough lessons always remain unless you work through 'em, you know? So it's like you go through a lot of years at one place and there's a lot of, I would say, mental scar tissue, from losses or relationships or certain experiences. Oh, this guy had said this once, or that teammate, or this coach or that general manager.
"Now you go to a new place and you have none of that. So now you can just hopefully bring your best knowing that you probably didn't do everything right where you were, but you tried your best. And now you get to go to a new place with a different type of emotional energy. And I'm excited for him. He'll be invigorated. Looks like he's having a good time up to this year. I know he has been engaged in the offseason, which is always great, and really trying to connect with his teammates. So I'm excited to see what he does. They have a really good team. They have a really good offense. And, you know, Aaron's been, when he's got good receivers, man, it's pretty dangerous. … I think he's gonna have a great year."
Is there any chance Brady could return to the NFL?
The one question Brady will be asked for the next few years is this: "Is there any chance you'll come back to the NFL at any point?" It doesn't matter what answer he gives, he will keep being asked that question until he appears to be physically unable to play football anymore.
But if anyone is fearing the return of the GOAT, don't worry. As Brady said on the podcast, he is very happy to be retired.
"There's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears and being out there in a hundred degree heat in Miami, and it's hard in Tampa when you got helmets and shoulder pads on. And I am very excited to never put on a helmet again. I did enough years of that and putting that six-pound helmet on your head in 102 degree heat, believe me, I'm not ever gonna miss that."
