Tom Brady cracks open door to possible return from retirement: 'I'm not opposed to it'

Tom Brady retired. Then he unretired. Then he retired again, "for good." Then he joked about unretiring. Then he said unretiring is "off the table."

You'll never guess what he did Thursday.

The former New England Patriots quarterback appeared on a new podcast called "DeepCut," in which the premise appears to be guests being interviewed while receiving haircuts from barber influencer VicBlends.

When asked about the prospect of returning from retirement, specifically to replace a quarterback late in the season for a playoff team, Brady didn't rule it out. He actually presented the NFL as the actual obstacle to a return, due to his ongoing attempt to buy a chunk of the Las Vegas Raiders.

He compared the idea to that of Michael Jordan, who returned to the NBA after a second retirement to play for the Washington Wizards, of which he owned a piece.

Brady's answer:

"I'm not opposed to it. I don't know if they are going to let me if I become an owner of an NFL team. I don't know, I'm always going to be in good shape, always be able to throw the ball, so, to come in for a little bit, like MJ coming back, I don't know if they would let me, but I wouldn't be opposed to it."

Brady also mentioned the Patriots and Raiders as possibilities for such a comeback, while VicBlends mentioned his hometown San Francisco 49ers.

That's as much as Brady has entertained the possibility of a return since his little video on the beach, and comes a month after he posted a video of himself running a 40-yard dash. You could call these breadcrumbs for a potentially shocking return, but it's also probably worth noting that "DeepCut" is produced by a production company called Shadow Lion.

What is Shadow Lion? Well, it happens to be co-founded by Brady and his longtime manager Ben Rawitz, with others, and is responsible for many of the ads you've seen Brady in over the past few years, as well as his well-coordinated social presence.

So Brady and his people are behind this podcast. And what would help a nascent podcast get exposure more than one of the most famous athletes in the world implying he could return from retirement a second time?

Serious or not, it's clear that Brady will never stop hustling. It's just more likely he'll be hustling for Shadow Lion or Fox Sports, where he's still set to begin broadcasting next season, than for an actual NFL team.