Despite leading the Patriots to nine Super Bowl appearances over his 20-year career in New England, including six championships, it seems that quarterback Tom Brady still felt like he had something to prove to teams. The soon-to-be 43-year-old left the only franchise he’s ever known in favor of the Buccaneers, a franchise not exactly known for its culture of winning.
Given that the the Bucs haven’t made the playoffs since 2007 and haven’t won a postseason game since 2002, you’d think Bucs brass would need to pull out all the stops to try and convince a future Hall of Fame quarterback to come to Tampa.
Well, according to Bucs GM Jason Licht, Brady was the one who did all the pitching when he got on the phone with Licht and head coach Bruce Arians the other week when the free agency period began. Licht appeared Monday on ESPN’s Get Up and talked about that first phone call with Brady.
Per ESPN:
“We had a great conversation — Bruce and I — we talked to him for over an hour and a half. And he made it clear in the conversation that he was very, very interested. It was almost like a recruitment on his part, telling us why it would make sense for him to come to Tampa Bay. The next call we made, we signed him, but it was at that phone call that we realized, that we felt like we had him.”
It seems that Brady really was looking for a way out of New England, and was doing his best to convince teams he was the right guy to lead them (not that teams needed much convincing).
As we saw from Brady’s Instagram post when he signed his Bucs contract, he looks rejuvenated and full of life now. I mentioned how he looked like a high school kid signing his letter of intent. And, as Licht pointed out, it sounds like Brady felt like a kid in the recruitment process.
[lawrence-related id=29897,29891,29885,29877]