George McCaskey confirms Bears interest in Tom Brady in 2020

Tom Brady recently filled garbage time on a Fox broadcast by claiming that the Bears silently pursued him of his own free willin 2020. Bears chairman George McCaskey has confirmed the previous interest in Brady.

“Well, that seems like ancient history at this point,” McCaskey said from England, the site of his team’s Week 6 game, via ESPN.com’s Courtney Cronin. “I remember we were interested in pursuing him. It didn’t work for us. It worked great for him in Tampa.”

The term “interested in pursuing him” suggests it didn’t get very far. And McCaskey made it clear that the Bears, like all teams, were evaluating several possible paths.

“Anytime you’re in a situation like that, you don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” McCaskey said. “You look at alternatives. It’s the same in free agency, it’s the same in the draft. If the person you’re targeting is unavailable, you’ll want to make sure you’ve carefully explored all other options. So that was an option we looked at.”

The Bears ultimately traded to the Jaguars for Nick Foles. And Foles and the Bears beat Brady on a Thursday night in 2020, fueled by Brady I didn’t realize it was fourth.