When Tom Brady left the Patriots in 2020, it was no foregone conclusion that he’d join the Buccaneers, a team that had a talented roster but hadn’t won a playoff game since ’02. According to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, had things broken a bit differently, Brady may be suiting up for one of the Bucs’ NFC South rivals right now.
In an episode of the ESPN Daily podcast last week, NFL insider Jeff Darlington peeled back the curtain on Brady’s dalliance with another Florida team: the Dolphins. The NFL recently announced that Miami had made “impermissible” contact with the legendary quarterback while he was with New England in 2019 and ’20, and the Buccaneers in ’21, with the possibility of Brady joining the franchise as a minority owner and potentially starting quarterback.
In January 2022, the team also had contact with then-Saints coach Sean Payton without the franchise’s permission, before he stepped down during the offseason. The Brady-Payton pair is not a coincidence, Darlington says. Had Drew Brees retired after 2020, when Brady was looking for a new team, Darlington says that Brady would have taken his place as Saints quarterback under Payton, a move that was rumored at the time.
He shared that information with WEEI in April, before the Dolphins’ tampering findings were released, and went into more detail on ESPN Daily.
“I have to take you back to a time when Tom Brady had decided that he was leaving the New England Patriots, and the Tampa Bay Bucs were absolutely at the top of his list. But so too were another team, and that was the New Orleans Saints coached by Sean Payton,” Darlington said. “I don’t think people give it credit enough how close Tom Brady was to playing with Sean Payton in New Orleans. Had Drew Brees ended up as the Monday Night Football analyst at our network, Tom Brady would have ended up with the Saints.”
Darlington added that Brees was so close to retirement that year that he at one point told Payton, “I’m done. I’m retired,” before walking it back. Brees would ultimately retire following the 2020 season, handing Jameis Winston the reins to the job with Brady already entrenched in Tampa Bay with a seventh Super Bowl ring on his finger.
Brady spent most of his career playing for the NFL’s greatest coach, Bill Belichick. After leaving New England, it appears that he had his heart set on joining up with a more player-friendly, offensive-minded coach. After the door closed on Payton, he opted for Bruce Arians and the high-flying Bucs roster instead. That interest in playing for Payton, with whom Brady shares an agent, certainly informs how much of the Dolphins controversy came about over the last few years.
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