Tom Brady almost considered retiring from the NFL early. Here's exactly why
ByTuhin Das Mahapatra
Published on: Jul 08, 2025 10:34 AM IST
Tom Brady nearly retired in 2005 due to persistent elbow pain but found a solution with body coach Alex Guerrero.
Long before Tom Brady became the NFL star, the architect of seven Super Bowl titles, he nearly walked away. Not in his forties. Not after his final ring. But in 2005, at just 27 years old.
Tom Brady nearly quit football at 27 due to a long-standing elbow injury. (Photo by James Gilbert / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP)
Tom Brady nearly quit football at 27 due to a long-standing elbow injury. (Photo by James Gilbert / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP)
The reason? An elbow that had been haunting him since his teenage years.
“I loved football,” he wrote in his recent blog post, “but a year or two into my pro career, I really wondered how long I could play if I was never going to be able to throw the football without pain.”
“For my first eleven years playing organized sports, I had a very bad elbow. It started with going straight from football season to baseball season in junior high and high school, then it continued with all the throwing required… at the collegiate and pro levels,” he added.
“To deal with the issue, I stretched, I lifted weights, I did a number of different things in order to get stronger and to try to relieve the pain, but none of it really worked.”
By 2004, he was seriously contemplating stepping away. But then came a moment. Patriots teammate Willie McGinest had been dealing with his own physical breakdown when he turned to body coach Alex Guerrero. Since then McGinest’s career was extended by eight more seasons.
That caught Brady’s attention. Within three days of working with Guerrero, everything changed. The elbow pain was gone. The fire was back.
Brady and Guerrero went on to create the TB12 Method, focusing on pliability, recovery, and proactive care. The result? A career that defied age, injury, and expectation.
Now, in retirement, Brady watches as young athletes suffer avoidable injuries. An Achilles tear here, an ACL there. It frustrates him. “Pain is a yellow flag,” he says. “Like when the ‘check engine’ light comes on in your car.”
Brady is applying Guerrero’s methods to professional sports teams he’s involved with, like Birmingham City FC and the Las Vegas Raiders.
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