Jay Glazer keeps circling back to two teams when evaluating the chances of Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots in free agency: the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers.
Glazer kicked around the idea of Brady joining the Raiders or Chargers a couple of weeks ago, and the NFL insider again turned to those franchises Friday when asked in his latest mailbag for The Athletic where he could see Brady playing in 2020 if the six-time Super Bowl champion indeed moves on after 20 seasons in New England.
Here’s what Glazer wrote:
I said it last week, the Chargers or the Raiders. I spoke about the business side of things. You guys kind of jumped on me talking about how great ticket sales are for the Raiders. I don’t know if I said ticket sales or not but there’s way more than ticket sales when you’re building up a business. They can use Tom Brady to build the business of the Raiders, which will now be an international team. I say that because of all the big business whales from all over the world who are going to come to Las Vegas and now be exposed to the Raiders. That’s going to be a hot ticket. The international marketing will be huge. The Raiders are going to be big players internationally with that. That’s why I would think it’s a brilliant move to go to Vegas. Certainly, if I were the Chargers, I would just open up my checkbook and say, “Alright, Tom. Fill in all the commas you need.”
The Chargers have been linked to Brady in speculation for a while, as Los Angeles quarterback Philip Rivers also is set to become a free agent this offseason. The Raiders, meanwhile, seem to be gaining steam as a potential landing spot — in the public’s mind, at least — now that they’ve officially moved from Oakland to Las Vegas.
Brady was spotted this past Saturday chatting with Raiders owner Mark Davis at UFC 246 in Las Vegas. UFC president Dana White, who knows both Brady and Davis personally, even suggested there might be legs to the rumors linking TB12 to Las Vegas, although that chatter doesn’t seem to be sitting too well with Raiders quarterback Derek Carr.
Nevertheless, Brady’s free agency will continue to dominate headlines until he reaches a decision regarding his future. Because while he regressed in 2019 and will turn 43 ahead of the 2020 campaign, we’re still talking about the most accomplished football player on the planet.
