Bears owner confirms Tom Brady’s comments about team’s pursuit in 2020

It is very rare to see a star quarterback free agency in the NFL, especially one of Tom Brady’s caliber. Yet that’s what happened after the 2019 campaign. Brady, frustrated with his situation with the New England Patriots, wanted a fresh start after 20 seasons there.

He eventually signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and had a lot of success in his three seasons there, winning a Super Bowl and leading the league in completions in two of those three years. But perhaps most importantly, Brady proved he was a game-changer and deserved a ton of credit for all the victories that occurred in New England.

His three years in Tampa Bay couldn’t have gone much better, but that doesn’t mean the Bucs were the only team interested in signing him. Brady even revealed upon his return to Raymond James Stadium as a broadcaster that he was considering signing with the Chicago Bears. Chicago chairman George McCaskey confirmed that via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin.

“Well, that seems like ancient history at this point,” McCaskey said. “I remember we were interested in pursuing him. It didn’t work for us. It worked great for him in Tampa.”

Brady signing with the Bears, a team that hasn’t won the Super Bowl since 1985 with an extremely hungry and passionate fan base, would have been something to see, but it’s not hard to see why he ultimately chose Tampa Bay .

Besides the fact that the weather in South Florida is a lot better than the Windy City, the Bucs had a lot more to offer in terms of talent than Chicago. Brady had players like Chris Godwin and Mike Evans to throw to while recruiting Rob Gronkowski, Leonard Fournette and Antonio Brown to Tampa Bay. Additionally, the Bucs were armed with a quality defense.

Chicago didn’t have nearly as much talent on the offensive side of the ball. Sure, they could have acquired Gronkowski, Fournette and Brown, but the likes of Allen Robinson III and Darnell Mooney couldn’t quite match Evans and Godwin.

Brady, as previously outlined, had a lot of success in Tampa Bay, while the Bears struggled with their resolution under center Nick Foles. As unfortunate as the loss of Brady turned out to be, the Bears are now, in retrospect, doing quite well with Caleb Williams as their franchise quarterback.