Tom Brady Was ‘Seriously Considering’ NFC North Team After Leaving Patriots

Tom Brady’s departure from the New England Patriots was shocking in its own right four years ago, but now the retired 47-year-old revealed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had some competition before officially waving goodbye to the frigid East Coast temperatures to acclimate in the Florida sunshine.

In fact, Brady “seriously” considered taking his talents to the NFC East.

“There was a lot of reasons to choose Tampa and I made about 18 criteria why,” Brady said, as seen on FOX’s Buccaneers-Eagles live coverage Sunday. “There was things all the way from salary obviously to the weather to the facilities to how great the players were and ultimately — Chicago was a team, and I never told that story before, they were very stealth in their recruitment. I was seriously considering (the Bears), but in the end, it came down to Tampa, and it was close to my son Jack, I love Bruce Arians and the role that he played in offense, and ultimately the great players like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin that I’m still out there watching today.”

Brady’s elaborate consideration paid off in the blink of an eye. In silencing the naysayers, at 44 years old nonetheless, Brady transformed a 7-9 Buccaneers team into champions, defeating Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in a 31-9 slaughter in Super Bowl LV. Brady earned his 15th and final Pro Bowl nomination, finished second in league MVP voting, and led the NFL with a career-high 5,316 passing yards.

Meanwhile, a dark cloud hovered over the Bears that season — and quickly.

Chicago began the season 5-1 under then-quarterbacks Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles, but followed that red-hot start by losing six games consecutively to finish 8-8, sneak into the NFL playoffs and endure a crush 21-9 defeat in the wild-card round against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. Needless to say, under Brady’s leadership, history might’ve told a different story had Tampa Bay not landed the all-time great.