Mark Davis played dumb Monday, but if he had it his way, Tom Brady would have been the Raiders’ quarterback when they played their first season in Las Vegas.
That’s at least what Pro Football Talk reported Tuesday. PFT’s Mike Florio reported Davis wanted Brady in the desert, and he was using UFC’s Dana White to broker the deal. White spilled the beans Saturday night during an ESPN simulcast of UFC 278 and then confirmed it further in a post-event press conference.
Davis understandably skirted the story when asked about it Monday, but Florio added a little more context.
“Davis knew exactly what was happening,” Florio wrote, citing a source. “Davis, per the source, wanted it to happen, at least as it related to Brady.”
Florio also presumed Davis wanted Rob Gronkowski in the move.
Furthermore, Florio also confirmed what had been expected: Brady wanted it to happen, too. “(Brady) was, per the source, going to do it,” Florio wrote.
The whole thing certainly adds even more intrigue to the viral interaction between Brady and Davis at UFC 246 in January 2020 just after Brady played his final Patriots game.
There was, however, one slight problem: Then-Raiders coach Jon Gruden apparently didn’t sign off. Given the sizable investment the Raiders made to sign Gruden, it makes some sense as to why Davis, the owner, would defer to his employee. In hindsight, though, it was a horrendous idea. Vegas went 8-8 under Gruden (and quarterback Derek Carr, to the apparent chagrin of Brady) in 2020 while Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl.
Brady didn’t have to wait long to get a chance at revenge, either. He and the Bucs throttled the Raiders 45-20 in arguably Brady’s best game of the season. He threw for more than 350 yards with four touchdown passes and ran one in for good measure.
It got even worse a year later when Gruden resigned amid a scandal from leaked emails in which the head coach used homophobic and misogynistic language. It’s safe to say things worked out OK for Brady in the long run.
Coincidentally, Brady’s longtime offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, is now the head coach in Las Vegas. There are high hopes entering 2022 with McDaniels looking to take Carr to the next level, while Brady and the Bucs remain a Super Bowl favorite despite the QB’s head-scratching absence from camp.
