There might have been some legitimacy to the Tom Brady-San Francisco 49ers connection this offseason, even if nothing ever came to pass.
Brady’s refusal to shut the door on his NFL future upon retiring led to speculation that maybe he was just retiring from the Buccaneers, and was angling for a move to the 49ers. Bruce Arians and the Bucs shut down those theories real quick, but the chatter still hasn’t completely died down – even though Brady said he’s returning to Tampa Bay.
But in the few weeks between Brady retiring and unretiring, was there ever any actual talk of going to his hometown team? ESPN’s Seth Wickersham offered his insight Monday on WEEI’s “Merloni and Fauria.”.
“The 49ers were obviously a team that there was a lot of reporting around his interest. There was some smoke there, I don’t think that it ever became a fire. I think there was just too many factors that would keep Tom Brady from being a San Francisco 49er. One of them: Tom needed to say I want to be a 49er, and make that clear.
“Would Tampa let him go? Would Brady be comfortable moving his entire family across the country again? There were a lot of things that were impediments to a deal being done there, but I do think there was at least some mutual interest in just saying if Brady were serious about returning to football and he really wanted to play in San Francisco, if you’re the 49ers, do you pursue that? Again though, Brady never made it exactly clear that he wanted that to be the case.”
That last statement is important seeing as Brady was under contract with the Bucs and not a free agent. If he wanted to land in San Francisco, he would have needed to force a trade, which Tampa would be unlikely to accommodate.
So, provided Brady does not end up moving his family cross-country yet again down the road, the Brady-49ers idea might never become a reality.
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