Tom Brady Reveals What He Wants to ‘Show the World’ for Flag Football Debut (Exclusive)

Put ’em in, coach!

Tom Brady is reading to get back on the gridiron — sort of — when he makes his flag football debut in Saudi Arabia next year, three years after hanging up his NFL jersey in 2023.

“I’m very excited to get back on the field,” the seven-time Super Bowl champion, 48, and Hertz spokesman tells PEOPLE exclusively, when asked about his plans to play in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh next March.

Brady, who played for the New England Patriots for 20 seasons before joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his final two years, explained what influenced his decision to participate in the global flag football event as part of this year’s Riyadh Season.

“I always love teamwork, competition and I love working with guys that are really like-minded like I am,” he shares.

In addition to Brady, other confirmed players include Rob Gronkowski, Odell Beckham Jr., Tyreek Hill, Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, CeeDee Lamb, Sauce Gardner, Myles Garrett, Brock Bowers and Maxx Crosby.

Furthermore, the dad of three — who shares son John “Jack” Edward Thomas, 18, with his ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan, and son Benjamin Rein, 15, and Vivian Lake, 12, with his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen — expressed his excitement about flag football’s growth worldwide.

“It’s in the Olympics in 2028!” he emphasizes. “I think it’s just a great opportunity for all of us to go show the world why we love throwing the football around — and we’ve got a lot of great athletes playing and it’s going to be a really exciting event.”

He adds, “So I’m very, very excited.”

Brady also opened up about reuniting with his longtime New England Patriots teammate, Gronkowski, and weighed in on how often they throw a football together these days amid their respective retirements.

“Well, not as often as we used to, that’s for sure,” he says of the retired tight end, who hung up his jersey for good in 2022 as a member of the Buccaneers.

Brady and Gronkowski were a force on the field across the 11 seasons they played together in the NFL, starting with the New England Patriots in 2010 and finishing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021. In total, they won four Super Bowls as teammates.

The dynamic duo are still teammates today, but in a different capacity: sports broadcasters on FOX Sports.

Brady serves as the lead color commentator and NFL analyst, while Gronkowski is a studio analyst and full-time member of the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show crew.

Their respective schedules, however, is the reason why they don’t get to toss the pigskin around as much as they have in the past.

“We’re on opposite sides of the country a lot,” says Brady. “But when we’re together, it doesn’t take long for us to hook up and get our connection right back. We can get right back in a groove pretty quick.”

But despite flag football in Brady’s future, he’s confident there will be no return to the NFL.

“No longer pro football. Those days have come and gone,” the person who retired, un-retired and then retired again makes clear. “That’s for other guys to kind of pick up from where me and some of the older guys left off.”

“I thought we tried to show people how to play the game the right way,” he continues. “Guys like Peyton Manning and Drew Breeze and Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, I really looked up to as players, as people, and I think we did a good job for the game.”

Brady concludes, “I think it was a great generation of football and I want the younger guys to pick up where we left off.”