Well….. another day….. another odd rumor about Tom Brady. BUT at least this one is not in regards to his current absence from the Buccaneers.
It has recently been reported by ESPN’s Michael Rothstein, that before Tom Brady came to the Bucs back in 2020, he was all set up and ready to go become a Raider. The source of this news, was none other than UFC President Dana White, who claims that he helped orchestrate Brady to Tampa, only to have it shot down by Jon Gruden at the last minute.
The link to that story is here if you would like the full details.
Now, generally I would say there is probably little credibility to that story and this was just Dana White attempting to make it look like he had a role in a major off season storyline as a ploy to get more visibility for his own sport…..
However, where he made those comments does make things a little different. Dana White made those comments on a podcast that is hosted by Rob Gronkowski, and claimed that Gronk was going to be following Tom to Las Vegas. Kind of hard to fabricate a story about a couple of athletes if one of them is in the room and actually asked you to tell the story.
Gronkowski went on to essentially confirm the story and stated that he was happy with how the situation played out and reiterated his happiness that the duo went to Tampa.
Of course, the rumors have already come out that Brady was initially going to pair up with coach Sean Payton in Miami, and now we see that the Raiders may have been another potential landing spot for Tom, however, where he ended up was in Tampa and he brought us a ring that year.
I am sure Tom weighed his options and had other discussions, he is the greatest player of all time and had only played with one team his entire career, and there were plenty of suitors, but at the end of the day, TOM-pa Bay became the reality, and that is where things can stand. We can’t be offended by not being the only option, because this was one of the most unique off season transactions in the history of the league.
While Tom’s current playing status is currently a big mystery based off of his undefined absence from the team, let’s not overreact on new rumors about something that happened that “almost” sent Brady to another team due to the current uncertainty.