Tom Brady and Patriots Agree to Two-Year Extension

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has expressed interest in playing until he reaches the big four-oh, and now he has the paperwork to back up his claims.

According to ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter, Brady and the Patriots agreed on Monday to a two-year contract extension, tying the 38-year-old QB to New England through the 2019 season.

While many players have put on a front for the media of prioritizing winning over money, few players have expressed that sentiment as resolutely as Brady. Prior to the extension, Brady was set to swallow up a team-high $15 million cap hit for the Patriots in 2016, but the extension should now lower that commitment.

More significantly, Brady was due to be paid just $19 million over the following two NFL seasons prior to this new deal. In a modern league where a $20 million salary is considered the starting rate for a top-tier signal caller, Brady has largely remained an outlier. He refuses to let the market dictate his price, instead opting for more reasonable payments to allow the team more freedom in free agency.

Admittedly, you can afford to be a little less altruistic when you’re married to the world’s richest supermodel, whose earnings make most NFL contracts look like chump change wedged between the seats of the team bus. But no one asked Brady to take this deal, and it could be argued that his willingness to be a team player in that regard has contributed to New England’s dynastic decade.

Brady will turn 39 before he plays his next meaningful game. He faces arguably his greatest opponent yet in Father Time, who will once again try his hardest to end the career of one of the game’s greats.

It took a little over one calendar year to reduce Peyton Manning from the greatest statistical season in NFL history to a bit-part player in an improbable Super Bowl victory. Asked if he would sacrifice personal accolades for a fifth ring, Brady’s answer would surely be a defiant “yes,” but it’s never that easy.