Tom Brady managed to go nearly a month without speaking to the media, but that streak finally ended over the weekend after the Buccaneers’ 27-10 preseason loss to the Colts on Saturday.
Brady’s post-game press conference with reporters marked the first time since Aug. 1 that he’s done an interview, and as you can imagine, everyone had plenty of questions for him.
Just for a quick refresher, here’s what we’ve learned about Brady since that August 1 interview:
- Dolphins are fined for tampering. On August 2, the dolphins was hit with a stiff penalty by the NFL for tampering with Brady. According to the league, the Dolphins made “forbidden communications” with Brady in 2019 and 2020 while he was still under contract with the Patriots. The Dolphins also had inadmissible communications with Brady both “during and after the 2021 season, while under contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “Basically, the Dolphins did their best to land Brady and based on reports from Pro Football Talk, Brady wanted to play for the Dolphins. (If Brady didn’t want to play for the Dolphins, he could have told them to quit to call him.)
- Dana White says a deal was basically done to bring Brady to the Raiders. Not only did we have the Dolphins bombshell, but so did the UFC president dropped its own bomb. During an interview with Rob Gronkowski earlier this month, White said the Brady-Las Vegas deal was so close to being done during free agency in 2020 that the QB was actually looking at houses. “It was almost a done deal, and at the last minute, [Jon] Gruden blew the case and said he didn’t want him, and all hell broke loose,” White said. ‘It was crazy. Brady was already looking at houses. We weren’t saying yet Gronk was coming. So Las Vegas would have had Brady and Gronk the year the Bucs won the Super Bowl, except Gruden blew the deal.” If White was the only source for this crazy story, some people would probably find it hard to believe, but Gronk actually confirmed the details.
- He may have also wanted to play for the 49ers. Let’s also not forget that a book came out last October that claimed that Brady wanted to sign with the 49ers in 2020 and end his career in San Francisco. (He grew up as a 49ers fan in the Bay Area.) According to the book, “It’s Better to Be Feared,” Brady actually reached out to his good friend Wes Welker, who had just finished his first season as a than recipients. 49ers coach. During the conversation, which took place sometime after the 49ers lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, Brady made it clear he would sign with the 49ers immediately if they got him.
Those are three teams Brady might have wanted to play for instead of the Buccaneers. Brady has obviously been following all the news about him over the past four weeks, and he’s finally addressed speculation that he’s been looking to play somewhere other than Tampa Bay.
“I read all these stories about all these different places I was supposed to go or could have gone, and I was like, ‘I was only going to go to one place, which was here,'” he said. Brady told the media on Saturday. . “I think this whole organization knows that and all the conversations we’ve had over a period of time, I’ve picked the right place for me.”
Brady may have picked the right place — after all, he won a Super Bowl — but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were his first choice. Either way, Brady seems grateful to have finished in Tampa Bay.
“I think since coming to this organization it’s been amazing,” Brady said. “It’s been an incredible experience for me to come here and be as supported as I have been for a long time.”
Brady also went out of his way to thank several people in the organization, including co-owner Joel Glazer, general manager Jason Licht as well as former coach Bruce Arians and current coach Todd Bowles.
“I’m very proud of the effort everyone has put in to make the relationship work,” Brady said. “Joel has been amazing. Jason is a great friend of mine – Bruce, Todd, all the coaches – it’s an amazing relationship and I’m so grateful to everyone for allowing me to come here and experience this part. of my football life which, I look back, would probably be incomplete if I hadn’t had it. I’m glad I had it.
Brady could possibly reveal how close he was to signing with another team that wasn’t the Buccaneers, but right now that doesn’t seem like a topic he’s too interested in talking about. The 45-year-old also answered a question about his 11-day absence and you can read more about it by clicking here.