MY ACCOUNT
Tom Brady announced on Sunday he has reversed his decision to retire from American football.
Brady, who quit the NFL less than six weeks ago, said that over the past two months he had “realized his place was on the field not in the stands”, hence his U-turn.
The 44-year-old quarterback, who has won a record seven Super Bowl titles, is not the first sporting superstar to go back on a retirement announcement either.
Here, Stats Perform looks back at other greats who came back for more.
MICHAEL JORDAN
Whether you are an ardent NBA fan or have simply seen Space Jam, you know the story. Chicago Bulls star Jordan retired in 1993 after his team three-peated and shortly after his father’s death, stating that “the desire is just not there anymore”.
For the next year, Jordan turned to baseball as a minor league player as he pursued a dream his father had of his son making it in MLB. Then, amid rumours he was heading back to the NBA, came that Jordan utterance: “I’m back”.
The Bulls, led by perhaps the greatest ever, would win three successive championships again between 1996 and 1998 at which point Jordan retired once more. He then came back for a two-year stint with the Washington Wizards before finally calling it a day once and for all in 2003.
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
Seven-time Formula One champion Schumacher was 37 when he announced the 2006 season – when he was pipped to the title by Fernando Alonso – would be his last.
However, he remained around F1 as an advisor for Ferrari and returned for Mercedes to race in 2010 saying: “I have the energy back.”
He would appear on the podium just once across three seasons, though, and he retired again in 2012, a year before he suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident.
KIM CLIJSTERS
A former world number one and the 2005 US Open champion, Clijsters retired at the age of 23 due to a series of punishing injuries.
Clijsters got married and gave birth in her time away from sport, and then, after appearing in an exhibition match held at Wimbledon in 2009, the Belgian returned to the WTA Tour. In just her third tournament back, Clijsters won the US Open, becoming the first unseeded woman to win the tournament in the Open era and the first mother to win a grand slam since 1980.
She triumphed at Flushing Meadows again in 2010 and won the Australian Open in 2011. She then returned again in 2020 after a seven and a half years.
LANCE ARMSTRONG
American Armstrong retired as a seven-time Tour de France champion in 2005. But the story, of course, didn’t end there.
Dogged by doping allegations during his career, Armstrong faced questions again when he returned, aged 37, in 2009 and finished third in that year’s Tour.
Armstrong retired once more in 2011 while he was the subject of a federal investigation into doping allegations. Another probe from the United States Anti-Doping Agency led to charges which resulted in Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour titles in 2012, with the cyclist publicly coming clean on his doping the following year.
GEORGE FOREMAN
There was a full decade between Foreman’s 47th and 48th fights.
He lost on points to Jimmy Young in 1977, falling ill in the dressing room after the bout and suffering what he said was a near-death experience, leading him to find God.
A born-again Christian, Foreman returned at 38. Despite defeats to Evander Holyfield and Tommy Morrison in title bouts, Foreman would become heavyweight champion of the world again in 1994 – at the grand old age of 45 – by stopping Michael Moorer.
BRETT FAVRE
Long-time Green Bay Packers quarterback Favre, the king of indecision, bowed out from the NFL in March 2008, passing the baton to a certain Aaron Rodgers. However, he had a change of heart four months later. The Packers, who wanted to move on with Rodgers, traded Favre to the New York Jets.
After one season with Gang Green, Favre retired again. And then he performed another U-turn, paving the way for him to join the Minnesota Vikings, one of Green Bay’s arch-rivals.
He enjoyed by far the best year of his career with the Vikings in terms of quarterback rating (107.2) but Minnesota lost the NFC Championship Game. More indecision followed after that, though 2010 would prove to be the final year of a Hall of Fame career.
TOM BRADY
The five-time Super Bowl MVP’s retirement was brief and he actually did not miss any football. Brady opted to retire following the 2021-22 season after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ playoffs exit to the Los Angeles Rams, yet he reversed that decision less than two months later.
Speculation around Brady’s future had been rife throughout season. He put it to bed in early February, stating he was no longer “all-in”.
“I have always believed the sport of football is an ‘all-in’ proposition – if a 100 per cent competitive commitment isn’t there, you won’t succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game,” he wrote.
Yet the former New England Patriots QB changed his mind in mid-March, insisting he had “unfinished business”, with the Bucs having won Super Bowl LV before losing in the divisional playoffs this year.
