Quarterback Tom Brady‘s quest to win another Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hasn’t drowned out the trade rumor mill.
That’s even when a rumor gets discredited such as the rumor of Brady going to the Miami Dolphins via a trade, which Dale Arnold of NESN reported happening on Thursday, March 24. Jeff Howe of The Athletic reported later in the day that “there’s nothing happening between Tom Brady and the Dolphins according to a source.”
.@DaleEArnold tweeted this afternoon he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Tom Brady goes to the Miami Dolphins this season
Dale tells us he is hearing the parties are “working on it”
Remember: Dale was the first to report Brady to Tampa was a done deal
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio explained how Brady could still leave for the Dolphins. It would just happen in 2023 when Brady becomes a free agent.
“Miami could make sense then,” Florio wrote. “For now, though, the idea of Brady leaving the Bucs seems even harder to imagine than him retiring and coming back after only 40 days.”
Both Florio and Howe noted the irrationality of Brady somehow leaving the Bucs in 2022. Brady recruited free agent players such as wide receiver Russell Gage and encouraged key Bucs free agents such as center Ryan Jensen to re-sign.
Brady retired from the Bucs on Feb. 1 but came out of retirement on March 13, which turned around the outlook of the Bucs’ 2022 season. Another trade rumor also flies in the face of head coach Bruce Arians‘ response during the NFL Combine.
“Nope. Bad business,” Arians said in an NFL Network interview. “I’m not trading the best quarterback ever.”
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Not the First Brady to Miami Rumor
Brady going to Miami also surfaced as a rumor during his brief retirement.
Pro Football Talk first reported the Dolphins’ intended pursuit of Brady and former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, according to multiple sources via Florio. Brady’s name also came up as the “unnamed quarterback” targeted by the Dolphins in 2020 in the Brian Flores lawsuit, which nixed the Dolphins’ rumored ambition for 2022.
Flores, the Dolphins’ former head coach, filed a lawsuit on Feb. 1 over racial discrimination in coaching job interview practices. Regarding Brady, the lawsuit stated that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross “began to pressure Mr. Flores to recruit a prominent quarterback in violation of League tampering rules.”
This year, the Dolphins also had “internal discussions” about Brady becoming a minority owner of the team, Florio wrote.
Pie to Face Coming Over 49ers Rumor?
During Brady’s retirement Florio maintained that Brady will come out of retirement to join his hometown San Francisco 49ers for 2022.
Visiting on “The Dan Patrick Show“, Florio bet a pie to the face that if Brady didn’t make that move. Brady unretired March 13 to rejoin the Bucs instead, and show host Dan Patrick revisited the friendly bet with Florio on March 15. Florio tried to back out of it, claiming he has until week one of the season.
Either way, Brady retirement rumors could become an annual offseason thing for the near future. Florio compared him to another Hall of Fame quarterback who retired and came back three times.
“Get ready because Tom Brady is now Brett Favre, and it’s going to be every year, every year, until he finally calls it quits,” Florio told Patrick.
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Bucs’ Tom Brady Joining a New Team Could Come True, Analyst Says