It is very rare for Tom Brady to outright dump on an opponent, largely due to the quarterback's carefully crafted media image.
That's why it was so surprising earlier in the offseason when he appeared on HBO's "The Shop" and profanely ripped a team for not choosing him in free agency last year.
"One of the teams, they weren't interested at the very end," Brady had said. "I was thinking: You're sticking with that m----r (expletive)?"
The Tennessee Titans seemed to make a lot of sense for Brady in free agency. Ryan Tannehill was a free agent, and Brady goes way back with head coach Mike Vrabel. Instead of heavily targeting Brady, the Titans instead chose to re-sign Tannehill.
Fast forward to this week, and the team that did choose Brady, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are having joint practices with the Titans.
That prompted a question Wednesday on if it was Tannehill who Brady was talking about.
"Was Ryan? No, Ryan wasn't," Brady said, via The Boston Globe's Ben Volin. "Ryan is a great guy. No, I like Ryan. I was just talking. It's just fodder."
Yeah, OK.
As to who he was talking about, nobody knows for certain. A lot of folks within the NFL reportedly believe it was the Las Vegas Raiders, who have continued to trot out Derek Carr. The San Francisco 49ers and Jimmy Garoppolo are another possibility, as are the Indianapolis Colts, who last season signed Philip Rivers.
