FILE – Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady (12) reacts after an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020. The Saints won 34-23. (AP Photo/Brett Duke)
If Tom Brady does indeed decide to announce his retirement, the timing likely won’t have anything to do with a near $15 million bonus he is due to receive on February 4.
Spotrac, a website that tracks team and player contracts, initially indicated on Saturday that the seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback would forfeit that bonus if he announced his retirement before Feb. 4.
On Sunday, the website issued a correction that the bonus, which is money that was deferred from Brady’s signing bonus last March, is not at risk should he retire before that date.
“This $15M is not a new bonus, rather a deferred payment from Brady’s March 2021 signing bonus. It’s a fully vested bonus of which $15M has not yet been paid out. February 4th is that payment date, not a trigger for TB to earn it or else,” Spotrac said in a tweet.
Widespread reports late last week indicated that the 44-year-old Brady had decided to retire, although the quarterback has not announced it.
In fact, his father, Tom Brady Sr., told KRON4 in San Francisco that his son was not retiring and that the story began as “an online publication started circulating an unsubstantiated rumor.”
Brady’s one-year contract extension, which he signed last March after leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to his latest Super Bowl victory, was worth $25 million-plus the signing bonus.
The three-time MVP has played 22 NFL seasons, all but the last two with the New England Patriots. He has thrown for 84,520 yards and 624 touchdowns, both all-time records.