5 signs that Tom Brady was going to leave the Patriots

We all saw this coming … right?

We should have all seen it coming.

And some of us did!

But Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots certainly didn’t come out of nowhere.

The rumbling started during the season, with speculation and everyone reading into every one of his quotes after games. There was the cryptic photo that was a false alarm that turned out to be an ad for Hulu. Still, all the talk got louder up until Tuesday, when the GOAT announced he wouldn’t return to the franchise he’s called home for his entire NFL career.

Let’s look back at some of the signs that were emerging over the last few months.

1. Brady put his home up for sale

Back in August, this was arguably the first sign. Reports said he was putting his mansion in Brookline, Massachusetts up for sale. Hmmm.

2. His new contract would void in the offseason

The Pats and Brady agreed on a contract extension in that same month … but there was a twist:

That would allow him to be a free agent in the offseason.

3. Adam Schefter talked about the possibility

This was from last October:

4. There were quotes and reports

From an interview with Jim Gray in October:

“I don’t know why all this is coming up. I have no idea. This is not being brought on by me. I’m just doing the best I can do every day, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”

But he didn’t say anything about his future there!

And as our Henry McKenna — who also covers the team for Patriots Wire — noted, his negativity about the offense might have been rooted in his insecurity about his future.

After the playoff loss to the Titans, Brady had this to say via Boston.com:

“I love the Patriots. I mean, they obviously – this is the greatest organization, and playing for Mr. [Robert] Kraft all these years and for coach [Bill] Belichick – there’s nobody that’s had a better career, I would say, than me, just being with them. So, I’m very blessed and I don’t know what the future looks like and I’m not going to predict it. So, I wish we would have won tonight and wish we would have done a lot of things better over the course of the season, but we just didn’t get the job done.

“I don’t want to get too much into the future and stuff. I mean, this team has fought hard. We battled every day, we tried to get better, we worked hard to improve and I was proud to be a part of this team. Not only this year, but every year. Again, I just don’t know what’s going to happen and I’m not going to predict it. No one needs to make choices at this point. I love playing football, I love playing for this team. I’ve loved playing for this team for two decades and winning a lot of games. And again, I don’t know what it looks like moving forward, so we’ll just take it day-by-day.”

There was this from ESPN’s Jeff Darlington:

5. Christian Fauria said he was “100 percent done” with the Pats

Fauria is Brady’s former teammate. He said this in February:

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