It is also the case that the NFL draft is fast approaching. Better to look forward rather than backward, especially in a competitive sports media environment. In fact, outside of the clickbait slop websites, there might be an aversion to talking about how a top sports broadcaster who is also the minority owner of an NFL team explored — how seriously, we do not know — the possibility of re-adding “player” to his list of jobs.

Isn’t it bad enough that ESPN sent another ubiquitous NFL retiree, Jason Kelce, to cover the Masters Tournament?

But it should be of greater interest for a few reasons. One is that the 48-year-old Brady recently looked like he could still play when he took part in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic in March. No, he did not play the whole game. No, his team did not win. Most importantly, no, he did not take hits from live NFL pass rushers. Nevertheless, Brady showed he could still move and throw at a professional level. His touchdown throw to Stefon Diggs, a wide receiver who played for one of Brady’s former teams in the Super Bowl just this year, was a thing of beauty.

Second, quarterback Philip Rivers came out of retirement after an even longer layoff and much further from ideal playing shape last year. Despite his suboptimal conditioning, Rivers performed better than your average NFL backup. Rivers’s skill set is similar to Brady’s — quick release, pre-snap reads, commanding the offense on the field.

Yes, at 44, Rivers was still four years younger than Brady. But when Brady was 44, he led the league in passing yards and touchdowns while also finishing second in the MVP voting.  

Third, it may explain some things about Brady’s somewhat listless post-playing career. He did not report to Fox Sports to call games the first year he was retired, despite already being under contract to do so. He received generally poor marks for his color commentary during his first year in the booth. While much improved in his second year, Brady still seemed reluctant to share with the viewers exactly what he was seeing in the games, a skill that initially attracted fans to the game-calling of CBS rival Tony Romo, a good quarterback who had nevertheless been much less successful than Brady while actually playing.

Was Brady still holding back because he thought he might return to the gridiron at some point? Residual NFL ambitions may also be the reason he sometimes says things that vex Patriots fans: Unlike other retired New England greats, he doesn’t yet see himself as entirely a nostalgia act.

Finally, the strongest piece of evidence yet that Brady hasn’t fully extinguished his desire to play should be compelling because it means there is still a non-zero chance of it happening. Based on Brady’s history: If he really wants to do something, would you really bet against him finding a way?

I’ve long maintained that Brady retired more reluctantly than many in the football world believed. The conventional wisdom that his decision to play one more year in Tampa — he briefly retired and then unretired that offseason — ended his marriage to Gisele Bundchen may or may not be true. But it sure looks like the dissolution of his marriage accelerated the conclusion of his playing career. 

The Las Vegas Raiders wanted Brady as a player before they won him as an owner. The San Francisco 49ers, Brady’s childhood favorite team, had interest if Brock Purdy wasn’t ready to start the 2023 season. But Brady’s child custody arrangement tethered him to Florida. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl window had closed. The Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback job didn’t open up (Tua Tagovailoa had considered retiring after the 2022 season due to his concussion history, but kept playing). So Brady called it quits.

Brady’s interest in playing football had diminished to the point that he was no longer willing to slog through a rebuild. It had genuinely become difficult in the last years of his career to make playing work with the other obligations in his life.

Yet, Brady kept the 2023 season open rather than starting his broadcasting career. He didn’t add dummy years to his Buccaneers’ contract, remaining a free agent. In fact, he dutifully played through one of the most difficult years of his personal life at 45 to exhaust that contractual obligation. Whenever he is asked about unretiring, even when he pours cold water on the idea, his answer usually reveals that he has thought about how he’d do it. And he brings the subject up himself often enough.

If Brady had his druthers, he would call a game for Fox Sports while having ownership stakes in both teams on the field and be allowed to come down from the booth to replace either quarterback while also starring in all the commercials. 

No, not for a whole season, necessarily. But he could probably do a more successful version of what Rivers attempted last season and Joe Flacco did for the Cleveland Browns in 2023. Play in place of an injured starter and lead a team to the playoffs.

Brady could potentially be lured out of retirement by two scenarios: if he genuinely believed he could win an eighth ring without playing a full season, or if the NFL would let him become the league’s first active player-owner. If he can stay in shape through 2028, a third scenario might also entice him: becoming the first member of the Hall of Fame to appear in a game.

The reason none of this is terribly likely to happen is that he bought into the Raiders. The league doesn’t seem interested in him becoming the first active player-owner, and they now have a veto.  The other owners probably feel they have indulged Brady enough by letting him be both an owner and a broadcaster. 

THE NFL’S ‘ROONEY RULE’ FACES A RECKONING 

The Raiders could conceivably buy back his ownership shares if they really wanted him (they certainly did more to woo him as a minority owner than they have done to land a legitimate starting quarterback). But it is hard to see the Raiders getting good enough for Brady to help them before even he is physically too old to play. And if they somehow did, it would likely mean that Kirk Cousins, whom they have signed, or Fernando Mendoza, whom they are expected to draft, played well. 

Most retired football players have trouble walking away from the game. Brady is no different. It’s fun to dream, anyway. Obviously, he still does.

W. James Antle III (@jimantle) is executive editor of the Washington Examiner magazine.