PRICE: Brady pulling the plug three months from start of camp would be out of character

Tom Brady is not going to pull a Barry Sanders.

Despite the news Wednesday morning that the quarterback has yet to commit for the coming season, the idea of him suddenly bailing on 2018 would run counter to a lot of what he's stood for over the course of his career.

You can argue all you want about tension between the quarterback and the coach. You can deconstruct every frame of “Tom vs. Time” for clues from Gisele about whether or not he’ll be playing come this fall. You can obsess over cryptic social media statements that may or may not serve as an indicator of his future.

The end is going to come, and it's going to come (relatively) soon. But the bottom line is he’s not walking away so abruptly for a few reasons.


First, there’s the relationship with Robert Kraft. The bond there is too deep. He has no interest in souring his relationship with the owner. I will say it sounds more and more like Kraft has to start taking more of a proactive role here when it comes to brokering peace between his coach and the quarterback. (Seriously ... it might be time for another meeting.) But given his relationship with Kraft, I can’t see Brady pulling the plug on the 2018 three months from the start of training camp. He has too much respect for the owner to leave him in the lurch like that.

Then, there’s his own financial future to consider. He’s not hurting for cash, but the whole premise of the TB12 brand is wrapped up in him continuing to play and push back Father Time. He’s spent the last several years telling Kraft and anyone else who would listen that he wants to play until he’s 45 years old. He keeps playing, and it serves as a validation for that lifestyle and by extension, his business. He sells more cookbooks and magic sleepwear. If he hangs it up, it’ll hurt his legacy, but it’ll also hurt his wallet. Basically, it’s the sort of emotional, out-of-the-blue judgment that would be so out of character for him, and so unlike the way he’s done business over the course of his career.

And you’re telling me he’d be pushing for this six months after Jimmy Garoppolo was dealt? After the Patriots found a way to get rid of the guy who was going to supplant him in the starting lineup? Not buying it. Given his own gonzo competitive streak, he knows there's nothing else that'll give him that sort of rush. He may want to "feel appreciated," as Gisele said in "Tom vs. Time." He also knows that there's no substitute for the feeling he gets from than walking out of Sports Authority Field or MetLife or New Era Field or Heinz Field having silenced 70,000-something opposing fans who were hoping for his blood. That fire is still there.

“Why does everyone want me to retire so bad?” Brady said during Super Bowl week. “I don’t get it. I’m having fun. The team’s doing good. I know I’m a little bit older than most of the other guys, but I’m really enjoying it.”

“You’re going to see me playing football next year,” he told Westwood One during the Super Bowl pregame show. “I don’t envision not playing.”

“I expect to be back,” Brady said after the game. “It’s 15 minutes after the game ended, so I would like to process this. (But) I don’t see why I wouldn’t be back.”

Let’s keep in mind that the report was filled with enough gray area that it will serve as a Rorschach test for football fans: Everyone will interpret it their own way. One source said Brady will play. One said they were unsure. Another said maybe. “My money would be on him playing football for the foreseeable future, but what goes on away from the football field, I don’t know,” one told ESPN. “I don’t know.” The bottom line is there’s too much uncertainty in there to really get a definitive sense of where this is all headed.

So what is this? A power play on the part of the quarterback, an attempt to get his guy Alex Guerrero back in the building on a regular basis? That would make sense. A ploy to secure the future of his guy Josh McDaniels? I might buy that. A trial balloon designed for one more payday? Our guy Miguel looked at a possible timeline for an extension here. And I could certainly buy that as well. Basically, there are a lot of options on the table.

(One thing to consider in all of this was something that was brought up in a conversation I had with two former Patriots' players this week: Belichick has been forward-thinking and adaptable in his coaching methods since he arrived in New England. With the added influx of personal "body coaches" like Guerrero around the league, this is clearly something that isn't going away. Belichick needs to find a way to adapt to this as well. Given his track record, you'd like to think he'd find a way to be flexible on this, or has at least attempted to find some middle ground.)

Ultimately, the idea of Brady calling it a career unexpectedly at a random point in the offseason — especially in the wake of that sort of Super Bowl loss? I’m not buying it. Maybe in a couple of years when his deal runs out. Maybe at the end of the 2018 season, particularly if it has him as the last man standing at Super Bowl LIII. But from this perspective, even with everything that's going on, for a guy who is meticulous and studied as he is when it comes to considering all the angles, the possibility of him giving in to his emotions and chucking it all at this point in the offseason runs just doesn't make sense.