Tom Brady Tells ESPN He's Playing Until 45, Via Instagram Comment

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady is getting pretty hip to the social media game.

Shortly after his interview with one of the world's biggest media moguls, Brady took a more surreptitious route toward reiterating his plan to play at least until the age of 45. Brady communicated this message via Instagram comment. And he did it using some monkey emojis.

As pointed out by Jim Murray on 98.5 The Sports Hub on Tuesday, the comment was made on Sunday. In a picture discussing Brady's retirement contemplation from his interview with Oprah, the official ESPN Instagram account captioned the photo by saying "Tom Brady says he's still motivated to keep playing, but he knows he can't play forever."

Tom Brady himself jumped into the comments with a simple comment: "Cuarenta y cinco."

(For those who lack a knowledge of Spanish numbers, that translates to "45.")

Showing he can still compete in a young man's game, Brady also threw in a trio of emojis, all monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Check it out:

The comment is still live, and it comes from Brady's official account.

What do the emojis mean? Well, that's the thing with emojis. They don't usually mean anything. But they do lend themselves to a number of theories. The NBA thrives on such things. Clearly, Brady is not afraid to dip his toes into the emoji game.

So, in a week that's thus far been spent obsessing over Brady's comment about being closer to the end of his career than the beginning, Brady is apparently back on message with his plan to play until he's 45 years old.