Are we doing this, again?

And that A-list hour will be kicked off by our friend Brooke Pryor from ESPN. I don't know, we might be breaking news for Brooke, I'm not sure.

Uh, at B.E. Pryor on Twitter. Normally you cover the Steelers, and I know there's a lot going on as we get ready for the draft, but I'm not sure you heard Tom Brady retired today. What? Again? Are you sure? I feel like Groundhog Day is tomorrow.

Are we celebrating that early? Yeah, yes, I guess. Look, um, you know, I'll just let your thoughts on Brady and then we'll go from there. Yeah, you know, I think that as much as it felt inevitable, it was still a surprise, right? I mean, it kind of felt like this is a guy that was just never going to give up. I mean, once you un-retire one time, I mean, shoot, you kind of feel like you're going to play forever, but also realistically, you can't play forever. And so I feel like this year really showed him his own mortality, not, you know, in terms of like, he's 45 years old, guys, and he's not dying anytime soon. But I think that it really set in this reality for him of like, here are all the things that I'm giving up to continue to play.

Do I want to continue to live this way? You know, and it's not a Super Bowl every year. It's not, not every year is going to be easy. And so I think that like, this is kind of felt like this is where this was headed. I think he was probably tired of all the speculation of like, if you're going to go to Miami, if you're going to go to the 49ers, because you're going to go to the Raiders. And you're like, you know what? We're going to nip this in the bud. We are done with this right here. I am done for real.

Because guess what? You cannot unretire and retire a second and third time. Like you're done. You get, you get two chances. Really? You should only get one, but you're Brady.

So you can have a mulligan, but like, still, that's it. He's done. That was emotional. I, it, to me, they never seen, he said it this morning on get up, but it captured exactly how I felt that it was sad. And it felt very real like this. It kind of feels like it's really sinking in, in a way that it didn't last year when it felt surreal.

And sure enough, it, it was surreal because it didn't stick around. It was brief, his retirement last year. Michael Jordan, though, is on line two for those people who can retire or unretire a second time because he did. Jordan, finally, after coming back and playing with the Washington Wizards and really doing well, considering the time off and his age in the NBA, did pretty well when you consider everything. But you mentioned his mortality, but there's an athletic mortality and the lifespan, the athletic lifespan of an athlete in general. And even for quarterbacks, there are very few quarterbacks that play at a high level beyond age 35. I mean, Roger, Aaron Rodgers has, Phillip Rivers has, Drew Brees has, and I guess I just mentioned three right there.

Peyton Manning did until the injuries took to control. But for the most part, you guys are, these guys are done when they get to 35. He went 10 years beyond that. Exactly.

It's he, he was already an anomaly in so many ways and there will never be anyone else like him. You know, maybe I'm sure someday there will be another quarterback that plays until he's 45, but that's going to be probably a big credit to science advancements and medical advancements and everything else that, you know, help players stay healthier longer. But in the set of circumstances that Brady has been drafted, where he was drafted, I mean the years of wear and tear on your body, like it is a finite shelf. You can't, you know, you can't avocado ice cream, eat your way into playing until you're 50.

Like it, it just doesn't work like that. So, I mean, he, he's the goat for so many reasons. And the fact that he played until 45, which in the real world is not an old age, but in football world, I mean, that's like playing until you're like 90 or a hundred. I mean, it is, it's unheard of.

Oh, there's, there's no question. Like there will be quarterbacks who play into their forties and they'll be bionic. They will have like metal parts, their legs, like Patrick Mahomes will probably have, he won't be able to have a high ankle sprain because he will, his leg will be a prosthetic at that point. You, you covered, you covered the Chiefs for a bit. What's Andy Reid? What's Andy, I have more things about Brady, but I'm just curious, what's Andy Reid going through this week going against his old team? I think that this is going to be, I mean, he is so competitive. He's immune.

He's a mastermind. Like if there was a Taylor Swift song that I would dedicate to Andy Ray day would be mastermind because of just his offensive genius, the way that he, you know, has found Patrick Mahomes and worked with him and used him. And now we get the chance to go against his former team that he had a ton of success with, and it wasn't necessarily this acrimonious divorce or anything like this. I mean, I think that for him, it's not just Andy Reid, but so much of that chief organization is rooted in Philadelphia that it's got to feel really cool. I mean, yeah, you want to win against your former team, but it's not like you're trying to show up and act like, look at how much better I am now.

I mean, he obviously really wants to win. And I think that would be incredibly satisfying to do it against Philly. But I mean, GM Brett Beach also got his start in Philadelphia as a, as a coaching assistant and a scout. And I think Dave Tope was in Philly. I mean, so many members of that staff came from Philadelphia.

So I think it's a cool full circle moment. Maybe we'll see Andy Reid in a Hawaiian shirt. I mean, Arizona is lovely this time of year. It's not maybe as tropical as South Florida, but I think that he's going to have a lot of fun. And I think that, you know, he's also going to coach and scheme his butt off and I'm excited to see it.

Well, I am too. And if Andy Reid can get a second Super Bowl, it puts him, I mean, it just takes him to a different place. I already think he's the second guy behind Belichick of this era of football.

And if he could somehow win this one and who knows, I'm like, I'm really going way overboard here, but get another one. Now we're talking about Andy Reid as a historical NFL coach. Let me go back to Brady here for one second. With all of the stuff said about Brady, and I think we all watched him this year and we knew that he wasn't the same. He couldn't do it week in and week out like he had done it five or so years ago. There were days where it was there and that was great. And he could look great for a game, but ultimately he wasn't the same. Yet there were still a bunch of teams that were interested.

What are these? What are these teams? Are they willing or teams willing to put up with two weeks of meth for one week of great, which is probably what they were going to get. And yeah, because Tom Brady's great, even if it's only one week at two weeks of man, one week of great, that ceiling is so much higher than, I mean, 90% of the quarterbacks in the league, if not more that you can take a couple of weeks of may. If it means that you're going to get, you know, some eye popping performances, especially because finding a solid quarterback in this league is so difficult and it's so key to everything else. But I think that, you know, wherever he would go next, you would hope that, you know, maybe he would be involved more, you know, be a bit more of, you know, the training camps, all of that stuff.

But he was dealing with a lot of stuff off the field that I don't think would have factored in the same way next year. But you know what? We'll never know.

And that's probably for the best. Although what the heck are we going to talk about on TV now every day? Because he was, you know, an ace in the hole every week for a story, a panel or whatever. It was always, you know, what's Brady doing?

So we're going to have to pivot a little bit. Are we over the Aaron Rodgers saga already? Are we done with Aaron Rodgers?

There's nobody left to fire in Dallas. McCarthy is staying on. Kellen Moore's already gone to Los Angeles with the Chargers. Dan Quinn is going to stay on as the defensive coordinator. Dan Quinn could have had like 16 different jobs last year, stayed in Dallas, and now he's staying in Dallas again?

Yeah. I mean, I think that this is Aaron Rodgers' time to shine. I say that as someone who is not the Packers beat writer, so I can watch this drama unfold from afar. But this has got to be Aaron Rodgers' dream, right? Because he gets to be the guy. He can be the off-season drama that carries us through. And Aaron Rodgers loves nothing more than being the center of attention. And that is exactly what he's going to get all off-season.

And I feel like he's going to milk that as long as he can. All right. So I'll ask you this final question for Brooke Pryor at B.E. Pryor. She covers the Steelers, but she's on ESPN at the end of every week during the football season. She's in studio.

She's great. So Aaron Rodgers is the week one starting quarterback for blank next year. You know what? I really want it to be the Jets. Gosh, why do you wish that on Jets fans? Why do you wish that on Aaron Rodgers?

Do you hate him? Well, you know, there are times when I question that. But you know what?

I'm here for the storyline. At that point, another Packers quarterback going to the Jets, like Jordan Love might as well invest in real estate in New York if that's where this goes. I mean, I think that that would be a fun redemption art for Nathaniel Hackett. I kind of like to see Aaron Rodgers in New York City, like can you do ayahuasca and city limits?

I don't know. Half the city is all for that, right? I mean, look, I think it would be fun. I'd like to see Aaron Rodgers on, you know, the Daily News tabloid headlines. I think it makes a lot of sense for their team. If he's still playing at a high level, I mean, they have a championship defense. They have the best defense that they've had in a really long time. They have skill players on offense. They just need a quarterback. And it's not going to be Mike White. As fun as that story was, it's clearly not Zach Wilson. So sure, take a big swing.

Let's go after Aaron Rodgers and see what happens. As for the ayahuasca thing, you've been in lower Manhattan. So you've probably seen you.

Have you seen like the random Elmo walking around the street? Not near the seaport, but yeah, closer to Times Square, which is why I avoid that area of Manhattan. And I stay in the financial district. I walk from my hotel to the pier and back. And that is my nice little safe section of the city. Yeah, there are like random Elmos walking around the city.

I'm sure they're all drinking ayahuasca. Brooke Pryor at B.E. Pryor on Twitter, ESPN football analyst. I appreciate your time. Absolutely. Thanks, Adam. Take care.