More than any player that comes to mind in NFL history, Tom Brady uses any kind of lightweight as rocket fuel in his quest to be the greatest quarterback of all. time. From being the 199th overall pick to seeing his team sign a young Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round of the NFL Draft to eventually replace him, Brady has always found ways to motivate himself and produce at a once unfathomable level on the field. .
In the process, he also made those skeptics look ridiculous. One of my favorite examples is Lions cornerback Alphonso Smith talking to Brady’s trash during a Thanksgiving game during the 2010 season. The then-Patriots quarterback finished the game with a score of perfect passer of 158.3 and threw for four touchdowns, while tormenting Smith for most of that production.
It’s widely regarded as one of Brady’s best revenge moments of his career, but it looks like we may have another contender for No. 12’s all-time revenge performance that we didn’t even know we had. that there was a thing at the time.
This weekend, UFC President Dana White revealed he almost helped bring Brady to Las Vegas when he was a free agent in the spring of 2020. However, former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden blew the deal at the last minute.
“It was almost a done deal, and at the last minute Gruden blew the deal up and said he didn’t want him, and all hell broke loose,” White told Rob Gronkowski , who confirmed that the story was legit.
This reveal now pulls back the curtain on a story Brady once told on HBO’s “The Shop” where a team said they weren’t interested at the very end, leading the quarterback to say the now-infamous line, “I was thinking, ‘Are you staying with that mother—–?'”, which is now widely assumed to be Derek Carr.
Along with those comments, Brady also expressed his anguish over the Raiders (without naming them), saying, “They said they didn’t want me and I know what that means. I know how it feels. and I’m going to fuck you up because of it.”
Well, he did just that.
During Brady’s first season with the Buccaneers, the club traveled to Las Vegas to face the Raiders in Week 7. There Brady went nuclear, completing 73.3% of his passes for four touchdowns, no interceptions and 369 yards. His passer rating of 127.0 was the second highest this season. He also rushed for a touchdown in the win, giving him five total scores in the afternoon as Tampa Bay won 45-20.
Knowing what we know now with the Raiders giving up on trying to sign Tom Brady the previous offseason, this suddenly looks like one of the best revenge games of Brady’s career. Not only did he burn the Raiders in that one-on-one, but he also took Tampa Bay to the franchise’s second Super Bowl title later this season while Las Vegas was away watching the playoffs. playoffs after an 8-8 campaign.
