Tom Brady’s return to Buccaneers a boon for sports industry

Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer joins the Live show to discuss the impact Tom Brady's return to the Buccaneers will have on the sports industry.

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- Well, from the richest man in the world to the most successful football quarterback in the world, Tom Brady is returning to the Tampa Bay Bucs to play season 23 in the NFL at the ripe old age of, what is it going to be, 44? 45?

Here with all the details is Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer. And Josh, the burning question on my mind here is what is it going to look like in a year when Tom Brady has won another Super Bowl-- I guess it's going to be 57-- is elected the MVP or is selected as MVP? What is this going to look like for the NFL this year?

JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah, Jared. It's huge for the NFL. Right? They're getting, I mean, the best player for the last 20 years now is back for another year. Tom Brady is a huge star. And we know, in sports, that really helps the league and it helps the business. It's a character driven industry. And so to get a character like Tom Brady back is huge.

And so we didn't get too much insight into why Brady's coming back, why he took the month off to basically make this decision. I'll read part of his social media statement here that he put out on Twitter and Instagram.

He said, "These past two months I've realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands. That time will come, but it's not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I'm coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa."

Social media had a little fun with Tom Brady after, sort of complaining about him, you know, only retiring for a month. So I think that probably helps the NFL because people like to be mad or happy about a thing. And you get a lot of people that have an opinion on this. So people will want to tune in either way.

The NFL doesn't care if people are hate watching and mad that Tom Brady only retired for a month, as long as they're watching. And the other business thing, I think, to hit on here is that it's going to be big for companies, like Fanatics, companies that sell jerseys.

Sozzi, I know you interviewed Michael Rubin last month. And he told you that Tom Brady is quote, "a jersey selling machine." Well, if Tom Brady is a jersey selling machine, it's good to have him in the business. So I think it's probably going to be pretty big for the NFL to have Brady back selling jerseys, his face back out in front, facing the league.

- Yeah. Josh, today, I'm sure, is a good day for Fanatics founder Michael Rubin. But you know, to your point on jerseys, it's also good, I imagine, for Dick's Sporting Goods, even the local chains. Because it's not just the Brady jersey. We still have to, if you're a sports fan, you still have to actually care about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team, more broadly.

JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah, definitely. And I think that's why this announcement came when it did. We should note, today is the start of NFL free agency. So we're going to see a lot of players moving around.

And Brady didn't announce it last night by accident. He announced it so he hopes some of his Buccaneers-- there's about 20 Buccaneers, a little bit over 20 Buccaneers, that need to either resign with the Bucs or go to a new team.

And so Brady is trying to woo some of those guys back in, saying, hey, I'm coming back for another year. Do you want to play with me? And so NFL free agency is always a fun time for jerseys moving around.

We've seen Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos in the trade. Aaron Rodgers is coming back. There's a lot of buzz around the NFL right now. And I think we're going to keep seeing that for the next few weeks as those players change hands. More jersey sales, always good for the sports industry.

- Yeah. A jersey selling machine. I like that right there. Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer.