Report: Tom Brady considered three teams to sign with before deciding to retire

Tom Brady’s days of playing in the NFL on Sundays are over, but we’re starting to learn that it wasn’t an easy decision.

Brady retired after 23 seasons in the league and does so as perhaps the greatest player to have ever played the game. His final season didn’t go the way anyone planned it, and some believed that a man who prided himself so much on his football story wouldn’t allow a 9-8 season in Tampa Bay to be the final chapter.

Turns out, Brady at least considered a future where he came back for one more year. Unfortunately for Bucs fans, it would have been somewhere other than Tampa Bay.

According to NFL insider Jeff Darlington, Brady considered his options for next season before ultimately deciding to retire. How seriously he thought about actually returning is up for debate, but the list of teams was intriguing.

Darlington noted that Brady considered the Miami Dolphins, Las Vegas Raiders, and San Francisco 49ers as options for 2023.

Bucs fans who feel bummed out that the team was left out of Brady’s potential return strategy shouldn’t feel too bad. Tampa Bay wasn’t the only notable team that Brady spurned, and frankly,  got off easy in comparison.

Tom Brady rejected the Patriots before deciding to retire

Brady returning to the Patriots to bring his career full circle was reportedly floated as an option before being shot down.

“No, that ain’t happening,” Brady apparently said of returning to New England.

Ouch.

Context is important here, and we don’t have enough to pass judgment. But you have to imagine it was deeply satisfying for him to reject the Patriots if they were the ones who floated the idea of a reunion.

The bad blood that clearly still exists between Brady and the Patriots will dilute in good time. It’s only been three years since he left  New England, and he’s spent exactly zero time away from the game to allow himself to heal from whatever wounded him about his time there.

It’s objectively hilarious that Brady so cold-bloodedly rejected the Patriots, but things will get better. As much as it’s easy to laugh now, there will come a day when Brady returns to Foxborough and has his No. 12 jersey retired in a ceremony that heals all. It happened with Brett Favre and the Packers, and it will happen with Brady and the Patriots.

Brady thinking about returning for one more season shouldn’t be that surprising. He retired once and went back on it, who’s to say it wouldn’t happen again when such a thing seemed certain?

However, the fact that Brady thought about a return and still decided to retire should be all the proof fans need to believe that his decision is final this time around.