Tuesday 1 May 2018 08:44, UK
Quarterback Tom Brady has confirmed he will be back playing for the New England Patriots next season.
The five-time Super Bowl champion, who is now 40, ended months of speculation by confirming his desire to play for several more years.
Speculation has been ongoing about his future, although the man himself had said after Super Bowl defeat in February he was most likely to play on - and he has rubberstamped after a few months to take stock.
"I have personal goals. I want to keep playing," Brady said.
"I've said for a long time I want to play to my mid-40s. I was told three years, when I was 36, 37, 'You can't keep playing; no one wins Super Bowls [at that age].'
"It's a great challenge for me. I think I've been challenged my whole life. I feel like I can do it."
Brady guided the Patriots to the Super Bowl for the eighth time this year, an NFL record for any player, and he won his third NFL Most Valuable Player award after throwing for 4,577 yards and 32 touchdowns in the 2017 regular season.
Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Santa Monica Brady also reaffirmed his commitment to working with coach Bill Belichick.
"He is very respectful to me," Brady told moderator Jim Gray.
"We have had a great relationship, a very respectful relationship for a long time, and I feel like he is the best coach in the history of the NFL.
"He has a management style [with] players, and he would say, 'Look, I am not the easiest coach to play for.'
"I agree. He is not the easiest coach to play for. But he is the best for me.
"I think what he has proven is that whatever talent he has, he maximises his talent."
Brady admitted he also considered his family before announcing his decision to play on.
"Part of this offseason for me is certainly about still preparing for what is ahead in my next journey, my next mountain to climb with this group of team-mates," Brady said.
"But it is also [acknowledging] that a lot of people are getting the short end of the stick in my life - certainly my wife and my kids.
"Football is year-round for me. It is a lot of thought, a lot of energy and emotion put into it, but I need to invest in them, too. My kids are 10, eight and five. They are not getting younger, so I need to take time so I can be available to them, too.
"I've really spent the last two or three months doing those things, and I think I'm really trying to fill my tank up so that when I do go back, I can go back and I think I'll actually be, in my mind, a better player, a better team-mate, because I will be really rejuvenated."
