Well now I hope he doesn’t retire just out of spite.
I'm hoping for this now too as nothing would be a blow to "the mothership" as Dan Patrick refers to them as to be wrong on a story they are pretty much owning now. Schefter's reputation definitely would take a bit of a hit. I can still see them not backing down and if he played another year try to spin it as "well we had the timing a bit off, he is retiring but not until after the 22-23 season."
The news was a bit surprising to me as I was certain Brady would keep playing as long as he was at the top of his game and his stats this year certainly could argue he is still a top 5 QB in the league. 1st in passing yards 9th in completion percentage, 1st in TD, 5th least in INT, and 2nd in QBR. Still in great shape for his age and I thought he still had a lot of fire and passion left to keep proving he can do it just as well in his mid 40's as guys half his age.
If he actually retires TB has a lot of free agents to make decisions on and especially on the offensive side if they don't go out and sign or trade for a good QB there is no point overpaying to keep the team intact without some re-tooling.