Brady pledges 2018 return, discusses Belichick, and Butler benching

Tom Brady made a rare public appearance on Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference, answering questions from his broadcast buddy Jim Gray. The quarterback touched on a number of topics, including his intention to play in 2018.

“I have personal goals. I want to keep playing,” he said when asked about why he wants to keep playing. “I’ve said for a long time, I want to play until my mid-40s. I was told three years ago when I was 36, 37, you can’t keep playing. No one wins Super Bowls … ‘John Elway won a Super Bowl when he was 37, 38. Why would you keep playing? You’re not going to win a Super Bowl.’ It’s a great challenge for me. I think I’ve been challenged my whole life.”

But one of the more curious aspects of the whole exchange was when he was asked about his happiness by Gray.



“I have my moments,” he replied with a smile.

“Are you happy with the people you work with and for?” asked Gray.

“Yeah, I would say absolutely,” Brady responded. “In general, I’m a very happy person. I’m a very positive person. It’s just my personality. I always look at things as ‘The glass is half-full.’ When you’ve been on the same team for a long time, you’ve had relationships for a long time, they ebb and flow like any relationship. But there’s no people I’d rather play for or be committed to than the team I’ve been with for a long time.”

Gray asked Brady if he feels “appreciated” by Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft, and whether or not they have the “appropriate gratitude” for what he’s achieved.

“I plead the fifth,” said Brady with a smile.

“That is a tough question,” he added. “I think everybody, in general, wants to be appreciated more (at) work, in their professional life. But there are a lot of people who appreciate me more than … way more than I ever thought was possible as part of my life.”

Brady would later add that his relationship with Belichick was “great,” and he was the best coach in league history.

“He’s very respectful of me,” Brady said of Belichick. “We’ve had a great relationship — a very respectful relationship — for a long time. I feel like he’s the best coach in the history of the NFL. He has a management style of players. He would say, ‘Look, I’m not the easiest coach to play for,’ and I’d agree. He’s not the easiest coach to play for. But he’s the best for me and I think what he’s proven, whatever talent he has, he maximizes talent. What more can you ask of the coach than that? That’s what I want as a player.

“He’s been an incredible coach. He’s bee an incredible mentor for me. He’s taught me so much football. Like I said, being a 22-year-old kid and to come and learn from him, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now without his coaching. I wouldn’t have the success without how incredibly talented he was. Along with a lot of the other coaches, a lot of the other players. A lot of the other people in the organization. Because it takes everybody to do it. Everybody.”

He also said he wasn’t aware Malcolm Butler had been benched in Super Bowl LII until the game was over.

"For a team, this side of the room is the offense and this side is the defense," Brady explained. "We don't interfere with them much. I didn't know. Malcolm kept coming over to me during the game and was like 'Come on, TB, let's go!' And I kept going, 'What defense are we in where Malcolm's not on the field?' Is it short-yardage, goal line?’

“And then after the game, I found out. So I just didn't know. And I asked Malcolm and Malcolm said, 'I don't know. Coach has just decided something different.' I said, 'OK.' So I don't know what was a part of that decision-making, but I know we were trying to win the game. I don't think we were trying to do anything but win."

For the entire Q&A, check out the video here.