Robert Kraft says he would love to sign Tom Brady to a one-day contract so the greatest of all-time can officially retire as a New England Patriot.
But Brady may not be up for the gesture.
In an interview Thursday with “Jones & Mego,” NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran, who has deep ties to the Brady camp, says he doesn’t think Brady would be interested in the public relations ploy.
“A couple of weeks ago I asked — as it was being passed around — speculation ‘will Brady come back to the Patriots?’ I said, ‘That wouldn’t happen, right?’ I was told via text, that would not happen. He would never go back to the Patriots,” said Curran. “Now, would he come back and sign a one-day contract? I would imagine the same thing holds true.”
Curran says Brady wanted to end his career with the Patriots, but the team wasn’t open to extending him long-term. Instead, they continually offered him short-term commitments, and didn’t make an effort to retain his services following the 2019 season.
Brady probably hasn’t forgotten.
“The Patriots had multiple years in which Brady all but crawled on his hands and knees to the door of Robert Kraft and said, ‘Please, sign me. I don’t want to move from this house in Chestnut Hill. I don’t want to uproot my family. I want to finish here as a New England Patriot,’” said Curran. “He had no idea what laid over those hills in a place like Tampa Bay, and the chalice of celebrity and branding he could drink from. He wanted to stay here. They didn’t let him do it. Do you think he’s going to want to sign [the one-day contract] now for a photo op, so someone can leverage him after they passed on every opportunity, and made him uproot? I don’t.”
Though Brady’s retirement was surprising to many, Curran says Brady’s decision reflects the turmoil in his personal life. It’s apparent he was worn down.
“I think it was everything off the field. You could see it clearly in his face, how tortured he was by what was happening off the field in his personal life,” said Curran. “We made a lot of jokes about how he looked, but I understood a significant period of time that he took off prior to training camp, he kind of spent by himself in bed, as he understood what was going on. He was really racked by what happened.”
As a result, his play suffered.
“It’s like last year, he left the bar and everyone goes, ‘Don’t go!’ He’s like, ‘No, I’ve got to go home!,’” said Curran. “He comes back to the bar and it’s like, ‘Oh, he’s back!’ Then he comes back for the last year, and it’s no fun. And everybody is just kind of standing there staring at each other and he’s like, ‘Eh, I should’ve gone home.’ So now he’s going home for good.”