Here we are, in 2024, talking about Tom Brady playing for the Chicago Bears. Did you really think him "retiring" and the Bears "drafting several other quarterbacks in the past half decade" was going to make people forget about this?! The (NFC) North remembers.
RELATED: Justin Fields doesn't hesitate in taking a shot at the Chicago Bears' coaching staff
The newest twist in this story that no one has been talking about for almost five years comes from Brady himself! Now working as a broadcaster for Fox, Brady was down in Tampa covering Week 4's Buccaneers-Eagles game. In the final moments of the game, Brady was talking a bit about how he decided to join the Bucs back in 2020, and how much preparation he put into making the decision. It was full of standard Brady ... quirkiness ... until one very speicifc moment that gets very dark for Bears fans.
Tom Brady really almost was a Chicago Bear back in 2020
"Chicago was a team, and I've never told that story before, they were very stealth in their recruitment." @TomBrady shares the notecards he had when he was making his decision in free agency 👀⬇️ pic.twitter.com/NmPpGMFKU2
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 29, 2024
"There was a lot of reasons to choose Tampa," Brady said. "I made about 18 criteria of why. And there were things all the way from salary, obviously, to the weather, the facilities, to how great the players were. Chicago was a team – and I've never told that story before – they were very stealth in their recruitment. I was very seriously considering them. But in the end, it came down to Tampa."
This is so messy – not to mention unfair to Bears fans. They were just settling in for a nice long evening of that post-win glow, and now they have to get back on the web and rejoin the discourse about this. Do you know how exhausting it is to revisit that era of Chicago Bears football? And now they have to go explain once again why it would have been nice, but ultimately the Bears are in a better spot now because of it, etc. Arguing that is one thing, but actually trying to convince themselves of it is another entirely. Who has the energy for that? They'll always have that lasting image of Brady forgetting which down it was, though. In some ways, that's just as good as a Super Bowl.