The identity of the team Tom Brady ripped during a recent appearance on HBO's "The Shop" remains a mystery, but there have been no shortage of theories as to who the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback was referring to with his pointed comments about last year's trip to NFL free agency.
Eric Mangini, a former NFL coach who spent several seasons on Bill Belichick's staff with the New England Patriots, said Monday on FS1's "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" he doesn't necessarily think it's the Chicago Bears even though it would make "so much sense."
Instead, Mangini could see it being the San Francisco 49ers, another team that's been kicked around as the possible target of Brady wondering aloud, "You're sticking with this (expletive)?"
"I could imagine it could be San Francisco very easily," Mangini said. "And Jimmy Garoppolo and he had obviously, not issues, but (the Patriots) were prepared to move on from (Brady) for Jimmy in the first place, and then it's his childhood team and he can't go there and Jimmy's there again and keeping him from that possibility. And then look, a year later, (the 49ers) did move on from Jimmy. They went and traded an unprecedented amount to go get another quarterback (Trey Lance). So in a lot of ways, Tom was right. That makes sense to me, even though he said, 'I would've never played at that location.' I don't think that part was necessarily the whole story."
Brady's declaration that he wouldn't have signed with the team in question, even if it stuck around until the end of the TB12 sweepstakes, suggests he might not be talking about the 49ers. The QB grew up a Niners fan in California, and he probably would have welcomed a return home.
But Mangini clearly isn't reading too much into that aspect of Brady's story. The rest of the stars seemingly align, and let's face it: It's far juicier to speculate that Brady was taking a shot at Garoppolo, his former teammate in Foxboro.
