The former quarterback, who flew South after signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, opens up about what he’s enjoying most about retirement in the Sunshine State

Tom Brady was born in California, went to college in Michigan, spent the majority of his career playing for the Patriots in Massachusetts, and is now very comfortably living in Florida — and loving it.

“The quality of life in Florida is just really nice,” Brady, 46, tells PEOPLE. “It’s all the outdoor activities that I love the most. Being on the water is great. I live on a golf course, and I love just being able to get out there, even if it’s for 20 minutes, just chipping a few balls.”

Brady, who is dad to sons Jack, 16, and Benjamin, 14, and daughter Vivian, 11, says it’s a good vibe for the whole family.

Tom Brady at home in Florida.TOM BRADY/INSTAGRAM

“I have to be really active,” he says with a laugh. “I’m still like a 14-year-old boy, I’ve just got all this energy, so I’ll just go hit a few shots on the course, and then come home and swim in the pool, and then work out, and then the kids come home and we play volleyball in the backyard.”

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But does he ever miss the frigid winters in Foxborough, Mass?

“There’s some good months up here for sure,” he says of the Boston area, where he recently returned for his Patriots Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. “This is one of the days that’s perfect up here,” he adds, noting that his kids were also excited to be North for two days.

TOM BRADY/INSTAGRAM

“They asked if we could go see our old house. I was like, ‘We don’t live there now! We can’t just knock on the door!'” Brady sold the sprawling Brookline mansion for a reported $33 million in 2021.

The athlete, who has been in retirement since 2023, says that life has been just as busy as it ever was, and not just with all the swimming and boating.

He recently released a funny new spot for his Hertz “Let’s Go” ad campaign, which shows Brady as an analyst for the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards loyalty program. And of course, he has his Brady sportswear line, two production companies, and will be a football analyst at Fox Sports this upcoming season.

Next up, he says, is visiting Paris to watch La Mans and the Hertz JOTA team race.

“The leadership team at Hertz, they’re great friends of mine and we’ve been doing a lot of these fun things together,” he says, adding that the kids are going along. “Hundreds of thousands of people roll up to the stadium,” he says of Le Mans. “It’s insane. You don’t realize how big it is until you get over there.”

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Of course, once he’s back home in Florida, it’s right back to the water and the golf and the workouts.

“I had 28 years of really intense physical conditioning, so that never gets too far away from me,” he says of staying in shape.

“My physical body is so important to me. I relied on it so long to perform, and I still do because I love being active. So it’s like when I’m with my kids, I want to be skiing with them. I want to be on the boards, I want to be surfing with them. I want to golf, and if my son wants to go play basketball, I want to go play basketball with him.”

He adds, “But I don’t want to be in pain! So I still focus a lot of time on my physical body and my mental health.”