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An infamous clip featuring an all-time Tom Brady one-liner is once again making the rounds following Dana White’s shocking revelation during UFC 278 on Saturday night.
The UFC president appeared on ESPN’s UFC 278 with The Gronks special to chat with Rob Gronkowski and his family and ended up sharing a story about an alleged deal that would’ve changed the course of NFL history. White claimed he helped orchestrate a move to bring Brady and Gronk to the Raiders ahead of the club’s first season in Las Vegas in 2020, but the deal was nixed at the last minute by then-Raiders coach Jon Gruden.
“I worked to put that deal together for Brady and Gronk to come to the Raiders,” White said. “And it was almost a done deal and, at the last minute, Gruden blew the deal up and said that he didn’t want ’em. All hell broke loose, man, it was crazy.”
As we all know, the pair ended up reuniting on the Buccaneers after Brady signed as a free agent and Gronk returned from a brief retirement in spring 2020, and went on to secure their fourth Lombardi Trophy (and Brady’s seventh) at Super Bowl LV. Gruden’s time with the Raiders eventually ended eight months later in October 2021 after he resigned over emails that showed him using misogynistic, homophobic and racist language.
Aside from unexpectedly revealing one of the biggest “What Ifs?” in sports history, White may have also helped solve a mystery involving comments made by Brady ahead of the ’21 season. Appearing on The Shop in June, Brady fired a shot at an anonymous team that backed out of his free agency bidding to stick with another QB, leading to speculation in the year since that it could’ve been 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo or former Dolphins QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.
However, based on the timeline of White’s story, many are starting to theorize that Brady was referring to Raiders QB Derek Carr all along.
“One of the teams, they were interested and then, all of a sudden, they weren’t interested at the very end,” Brady said at the time. “I was sitting there thinking, ‘You’re sticking with that motherf-----?’ Are you serious?”
While it’s likely the Bucs QB may never confirm the mystery man’s identity, White’s wild story at least gives fans another intriguing name to add to the list of possibilities. But then again, there’s a good chance the search will continue based on Brady not sounding like he spent any time thinking about what could’ve been when sharing his final thoughts on the situation.
“When I look back, I’m like ‘There’s no f—--- way I would’ve went to that team,” he said. “But they said they didn’t want me and I know what that means! I know what that feels like! And I’m going to f— you up because of that.”
Needless to say, Raiders fans still awaiting a return to glory with Carr at the helm will probably be haunted by what could’ve been while watching Brady prepare for a third season in Tampa and Gronkowski fully enjoy his second (and final?) retirement.
