Tom Brady recalls team passing on him during free agency: 'You're sticking with that [expletive]?'

This unnamed NFL club may want a do-over

It's safe to say that Tom Brady made the right choice when he signed with the Buccaneers during his free-agent tour back in the spring of 2020. After all, the quarterback has just one year under his belt in Tampa Bay and has quickly added another Lombardi Trophy to his already historic résumé. In the end, the move away from the Patriots and to the Bucs has already produced glowing results, so he shouldn't regret where he signed whatsoever. The teams that were vying for him during that free-agent cycle? Yeah, they're probably kicking themselves for not being able to ink the legendary quarterback to join their club. 

While they may be on the outside looking in on Brady's recent success, at least they made an attempt at signing the greatest quarterback of all time. That apparently isn't the case for at least one team Brady had his eye on. 

During a teaser for his upcoming appearance on HBO's The Shop: Uninterrupted, Brady can briefly be seen and heard recalling his free agency experience, specifically with one team that appears to have told him they were going to keep who they had in-house instead of signing him. 

"One of the teams, they weren't interested at the very end," Brady said. "I was thinking, you're sticking with that [expletive]?"

As you'd likely expect, the team that Brady was referring to wasn't revealed in the preview. It also wouldn't come as a shock for Brady to keep the identity of that team to himself even when we see the entire context of his story in the full episode once it airs. 

That said, Brady's desire to play for his hometown San Francisco 49ers has been well-documented. Niners GM John Lynch has confirmed previously that the club had internal discussions about pursuing Brady, but ultimately elected to stick with Jimmy Garoppolo, Brady's backup during their shared days with the New England Patriots. Could that be the team and quarterback Brady was referring to in the clip? That's been a popular conspiracy theory thrown out there on social media, but it's hardly confirmed to actually be the team in question. The Tennessee Titans, Los Angeles Chargers, Chicago Bears, and Las Vegas Raiders were also among the teams rumored to be interested in Brady when he was on the open market.  

Again, this all seems like a moot point as Brady clearly made the right choice in the Buccaneers, but the 43-year-old quarterback clearly hasn't forgotten the snub. In fact, would it surprise any of us if the former No. 199 overall pick used that as fuel heading into the 2020 season? You'd be silly to think that didn't add a bit more motivation as he made that monumental change last offseason.