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Where Did You Go Tom Brady?
The once and future quarterback is returning to the NFL after a 41-day “retirement.”
In the long history of professional sports in America, most legends have run into trouble at some point.
In their personal and professional lives, publicly and in private; iconic athletes struggle like anyone else. Some have trouble holding on to what they have in the sports world; some have trouble letting go.
Michael Jordan, Mario Lemieux, Rob Gronkowski and others have officially retired from their sport…only to change their minds and return a short time later. To this distinguished list, sports journalists can add Tom Brady.
Can anyone blame him? Love of the game is a powerful thing. Most professional athletes have spent their entire lives, often from childhood, honing a very limited, very specific set of skills to do that thing they love.
They have honed these special skills very well. As the great Bruce Lee once said, “I don’t fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once; I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Sport is their field and their identity; it is also their livelihood.
Professional sports players are a profitable franchise unto themselves. They are a brand, with market viability and a limited shelf-life in their chosen…