Getty Bruce Arians (left) and Tom Brady (right).
Tom Brady nearly brought one of his former receivers to Tampa Bay.
While Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown both ended up joining forces with Brady on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, there was another notable receiver who had the chance to.
According to former New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman — who played with Brady for 11 seasons in New England — Brady tried to recruit the former seventh-round draft pick to Tampa Bay.
The interesting part?
He did it in March of 2020 after signing a deal with the Buccaneers — while Edelman was still a member of the Patriots. Edelman played out his last season in New England in 2020 before calling it quits after the season.
Edelman revealed the story while joining Peyton and Eli Manning on their Monday Night Football broadcast during the Bucs’ game versus the New York Giants.
“(Tom) hit me up the first day he signed there, like, ‘You wanna come down?'” Edelman said of a potential reunion with Brady and Rob Gronkowski in Tampa Bay. “I was like, ‘Absolutely not.'”
This would obviously precede both Gronkowski and Brown’s arrivals in Tampa Bay. Gronkowski would come out of retirement in April of 2020 to play again with Brady. Meanwhile, Brown’s signing took awhile as he didn’t ink a deal with the Buccaneers until the middle of the 2020 season.
While the sight of Edelman catching passes from Brady in Tampa Bay would have been a nice one, both sides are doing just fine. Edelman is clearly enjoying retirement while Brady won yet another Super Bowl in his first season with the Buccaneers.
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Brady Hurdles His Way to Victory
The Buccaneers walked away with an easy 30-10 victory over the Giants on Monday, November 22.
Obviously, the most important part of the game was Tampa Bay actually winning and moving to a record of 7-3, which places the Buccaneers just a game behind the Arizona Cardinals for the top record in the NFC.
However, the most notable part of the game itself was when the 44-year-old Brady popped off a 10-yard run during the team’s second drive. The sequence happened on a third-and-four play and led to a field goal for the Buccaneers.
“Eleven-yard run,” Brady corrected a reporter when asked about his scramble. “Doesn’t happen very often so I do remember how far they go.”
Not only did Brady break off the run, he hurdled a defender in the process to add to the dramatics.
“It’s been forever. Probably never,” Brady said of “hurdling” a defender. “That’s not what I do. Good to have it come up. Hopefully I can do that next week.”
Gronkowski Calls Brady’s Run ‘Impressive’
Tight end Rob Gronkowski — who was making his return after missing Week 10 versus the Washington Football Team — gave his own thoughts on watching his teammate of 11 seasons show off his athleticism.
“I was kinda open on that play, going up the seams, so I was like, I looked back, I was like why aren’t I getting the ball. And he’s running the ball, I was like Tom, man, you coulda just chucked up in the air, maybe it would’ve been a touchdown,” Gronkowski joked. “I also saw him running and was like, man that’s pretty dope. He got a first down, that’s what we needed, so that was a good play by him. It’s cool to see him run; 44-years-old, he’s running around getting first downs. That’s pretty impressive.”
As “impressive” as it was, the Buccaneers won’t be expecting Brady to “hurdle” too much moving forward.
After all, he is 44 years old.