Just last week, Tom Brady announced his officially decision to retire from the NFL after 22 incredible seasons. But despite his clear decision to call it quits, some people just can’t seem to let go of hope that the all-time great quarterback will take the field again.
During a recent episode of the Zolak and Bertrand podcast, Patriots insider Scott Zolak revealed his theory for a possible Tom Brady trade. Zolak believes Brady could be eyeing a “plug-and-play” trade to the San Francisco 49ers.
“I just think that’s what Brady’s focused on. He’s been focused on it focused on it for two years,” Zolak said. “[The 49ers] gotta deal Jimmy [Garoppolo], [Brady] knows that [Trey] Lance isn’t ready and he knows that team is built to win now. That’s attractive to him.
“You trade Jimmy Garoppolo to Tampa Bay for the rights to Tom Brady, then let him decide when he’s ready to go, you become an instant contender.” For the most part, NFL fans don’t seem to be buying this theory.
“This is so stupid it hurts,” one wrote. “What was the point of the niners giving up all draft capital to draft a qb,” another asked. In the 2021 book “It’s Better To Be Feared” by ESPN senior writer Seth Wickersham, reports indicated that Brady and the San Francisco organization had mutual interesting in making a deal during 2019 free agency.
Brady, who grew up in San Mateo as a 49ers fan, reportedly told his former teammate Wes Welker that if the team wanted to sign him, there’d be “no free-agency tour, no bidding war, full stop; he would end his career where his love of football began, in scarlet and gold, allowing his parents to drive to [his] games for the first time since the 1990s.”
Ultimately, after looking over Brady’s demands and examining his film from the 2019 season, head coach Kyle Shanahan and the Niners organization reportedly decided that the gap between the all-time great QB and Jimmy Garoppolo was not great enough to make the deal worth it. Is Tom Brady truly done, or could an ideal opportunity persuade him into taking the field for one more season?
